The Girl From Nowhere
by joerandom
Summary: Hermione Weasley, the aging Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, thought she was going to retire quietly but a Girl From Nowhere upends the wizarding world, and ends up saving it.
1. Chapter 1

**The Girl From Nowhere**

joerandom

24 July, 2011

SUMMARY: Hermione Weasley, the aging Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, thought she was going to retire in quiet repose but the universe has other plans.

DISCLAIMER: JK Rowling owns the Harry Potter universe, I do not. This is just fan-fiction folks, I'm not selling it.

DEDICATION: To my daughters, who have become fan-fiction fanatics.

AUTHORS NOTE: This is my first fan fiction story and the first bit of creative writing I've done (well, besides a few business plans :-) in many decades. I have not changed this story since it was first posted, I've just figured out how to get my favorite writing tool to output the right stuff so I can post the story in separate chapters.

**Chapter 1**

**Just The Beginning...**

Johnny Travers was almost late for breakfast, coming down the main staircase. He wasn't worried, since all he had to do was make it through the doors to the Great Hall before the bell and he was assured to get some food, and he had timed it perfectly. After 3 years at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he had come to deeply understand the rhythms of this grand and ancient institution. His brown hair and blue eyes did not mark him very different than most of the other 4th year students at Hogwarts, nor did his height or build. He liked being unremarkable and average. It was comfortable.

And this was a good day, this Tuesday the second week of fall term. No major assignments yet. No nasty pranks yet. No tests yet. Not even any bad weather yet. Life was good. "Oi, Jamison!" Johnny burst out as his friend merged into view amongst the river of students heading the other way. Jamison was taller, skinnier, with reddish-brown hair and freckles, a Ravenclaw.

"Johnny, how's the craic," Jamison said with quiet familiarity in his Irish brogue. They moved upstream through the flowing crowds like birds through a high wind.

"Good, sir. And you?"

"Ye s'possed to say 'massive', boy. 'Massive', er ye sound like a hick, man." Jamison said emphatically, with a pained expression that didn't quite hide a sly grin.

"A hick, eh? How do ye spell that, now?" Johnny said with a failed Irish accent.

"Ochk, me mother'd smack ye man. Disgraceful, that is." Jamison had a grin that was positively infectious.

"That's my best side, don't ya' know," Johnny said with an even more failed Irish accent.

Jamison stopped in his tracks and glared at Johnny, who stopped a few steps later and turned his back into the onrushing stream of students, "Oh, now that's better. That'll get ya' arrested, that will. Impersonatin' an Irishman, that is."

Johnny sighed with such contentment to be back with friends in school again. It gave so much meaning to life now. "Oh. And here I thought I was aiming higher for a Welshman." With a cackle Johnny turned and ran for the Great Hall as Jamison started after him.

"Now that's a low blow, ya' scoundrel!" Jamison yelled after him.

As they ran passed the larger crowds they went down through the thinning students in the main hallway and into the Great Hall. They said hello to their friend Geary from Hufflepuff, as Johnny was approaching the Gryfindor table when they heard loud crashing noises from the Main Hall. Johnny turned to look, then heard some screams. He started to move toward the sounds but before he got a full step there came very loud booms, huge growls, a lot of panicked screams, a deafening roar, and the pressure-wave expanding from a huge explosion inside the main hall that knocked students to the ground. Dust came down from the ceiling and walls. Silence, even though people looked like they were screaming. He heard nothing. He picked himself up from the floor and started to move as his hearing started to come back, though it was mostly just painful ringing at first.

Johnny and a few others started to run toward the Main Hall. In the main hall he stopped and stood there dumbly. The floor and parts of the walls were covered in dark splashes and green goo of some sort, like it was spread around with paint bombs. The splinters of smashed painting frames and shattered statue parts scattered over the floor. The smell was bad; burnt, foul. There was what looked like, at first glance, the body of a cow, twitching on the hall floor. On closer inspection it looked like the arm of a giant, bigger around than his waist, covered in amulets and a gauntlet next to a huge mace on the end of a chain. A few students were on the floor, trying to get up or get away, some covered in the goo. One or two, not moving.

The headmistress ran into the hall and yelled "STOP! Nobody move!" as other teachers started coming into the hall. She threw up shields surrounding the scene to prevent students from interfering. She pointed her wand at her throat and her voice was sent booming throughout the castle and said "All students back to your common rooms, now! All students in the Dinning Hall go out the other door past the staff room. Move! Nurse Mason, prepare the infirmary." Removing her wand, she said "Professor Colton, please help clear the students out of the Dinning Hall to their common rooms. Professor Young, can you see to those students over there?" Some students were now trying to stand, still in shock, others were huddled on the floor crying with blood coming from their ears, a few were barely moving groaning in pain. The teachers began moving to help the students who were having problems getting up.

"Professor Weasley, over here!", called Professor Zelazney, near the far wall. A small blond haired girl was laying crumpled against the wall, covered in goo, bits of stonework, dust, and wood splinters, with streaks of blood from many large cuts. She looked dead, her arms and legs looked very broken.

"Oh my...", Professor Weasley said in a choked whisper as she knelt down. The girl's clothes were burnt to rags with holes and ashes covering them, so much so that Professor Weasley couldn't tell what they used to be. "Who is this? I don't recognize her with so much dirt," she asked. She reached out to clear the girl's hair from her face to see who it was and she got a small shock, like a static electric shock. There was a twitch in one of the girl's fingers and the barest trace of breathing. She cast a spell to feed the girl some energy and help stabilize her. "To the infirmary, now!".

She levitated the girl and magically attached her to Johnny and said "Johnny, run to the infirmary as fast as you can and tell Nurse Mason that she is high priority. Go!" Johnny took off running up the stairs with the crumpled girl in tow. "Professor Young, what is your situation?"

"Three in shock, damaged ear drums, 2 slightly injured, seemingly from the blast and being thrown around. I have levitated the 2 and they are heading for the infirmary as a group. I'll follow in a minute. I don't know the seriousness of this green sludge, hopefully it's not toxic?", professor Young said, trying to wipe it off his hand. "But what is that!", he said pointing at the "arm" on the floor.

Professor Zelazney put a shield around it before they started walking toward it, just in case it was still dangerous. It was, in fact, bigger than any of them. A very muscular arm, seemingly sliced off above the middle of the bicep, loosely holding a large metal bar with a chain at one end connected to a viciously spiked mace. Some of the spikes were bent and dented and all very discoloured. A bracelet around the wrist with spikes in all directions. The "hand" was really like a bird foot with only 2 fingers and a thumb ending in long claws. The fingers were as large as the Professor's arms. A few large rings with crude stones inset on the 2 fingers. There was a gauntlet above the wristband and another band around the bicep just below the slice. There were strange symbols pressed into the metal of the armband and what looked like dragon hide on the gauntlet. There was what looked like a cattle brand burnt into the flesh, with a bit of the brand missing above the cut.

"At least we know where the goo came from, and the smell," said Professor Young, squatting down to look closer. Goo was leaking out of the arm making a large thick, lumpy puddle.

"Anyone recognize this?" asked Professor Weasley. Everyone shook their heads. "Recognize any of the symbols?" she asked. Again, no.

"Professor Young, please see what information you can gather in all this mess, but don't clean it up until I give the go-ahead. We need to find out what happened here first. Check for any residual magic, any traces of what caused the burn marks, all right?", Professor Weasley said.

"Yes Headmistress," Professor Young gave a heavy sigh and a bit of a blank look before turning away to get his thoughts in order.

"Professor Zelazney, can you collect all the information from any students who were nearby?", Professor Weasley asked.

"Yes ma'am," he said, with a determined note.

"Start with the ones in the infirmary first, gently of course. Then everyone else. And interview each of them independently and several times throughout the day, to make sure."

Professor Colton, the deputy headmaster, came swiftly down the main staircase, stumbling and slipping slightly, grabbing the railing he stopped halfway down. "The students are all back in their common rooms now. What the hell is that!", he stood staring at the arm.

"We were hoping you'd know; no one you recognize?" the Headmistress said with a bit of a smirk. He shook his head with wide eyes still fixed on the arm. "Professor Colton, please find each Head of House and have them talk to their houses. Have the students stay in their common rooms until 10:00, then we restart the regularly scheduled classes. But under no circumstances are they to come anywhere near this area, under penalty of ... something painful. Then find the Caretaker and have him guard the top of the staircase. Also, see if you can find the Potions Master and have him have a look at the goo, maybe he can tell what it is, or if it's dangerous."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Professor Young, please keep a shield around this area whenever you are not here." He nodded absently. "Are we all right?", she asked. After seeing no questions, "then let's get to it, I'm heading for the infirmary".

**Johnny**

Johnny was sprinting up the empty halls with his floating girl in tow. If he wasn't so scared of the seriousness of the situation he would be having great fun. It felt really good to be _fast_. As he got closer to the infirmary he started yelling for Nurse Mason. He hit the big doors hard enough to slam them back against the walls with a bang, even though they were so heavy.

"Mr. Travers!" Nurse Mason yelled as she left the bedside of one of the hard-hit students and came stalking toward him with with a pointed finger and a slow strained voice through clenched teeth. "Don't wake the rocks!"

"Yes ma'am," he said meekly. He had completely forgotten. "But what should I do with her?" he asked pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the floating girl.

"Yes, over here, quickly." The nearest empty bed was down a ways on the right. "I'll take it from here Mr. Travers."

"Professor Weasley said that she should be high priority, Nurse Mason." Johnny tried to sound meek, and mostly made it.

"Oh my ..." Her faced paled, her voice caught, and she started to wave her wand over the girl and mumble. "Oh my!" Supplies started flying from her office at the end of the room to her side. She caught them with practised ease as they flew into her hands. Her wand was run along cuts, potions were applied and administered, spells were cast, bones were straightened, and potion bottles tinkled to the floor falling off the bedside table as they were used. "Mr. Travers, draw the curtains and find someplace useful to be! And get me the Potions Master! Now!"

He flipped the curtains closed and ran, glad to be free with something to do, and an excuse to run.

**Professor Weasley**

Professor Weasley started up the stairs toward the infirmary. It was a long ways in her advanced age and again she felt the sharp frustration at not being able to apparate directly there. "I'm going to have to start carrying a broom with me," she thought to herself. She had felt the magic, could almost touch the magic it was so strong. It was just an explosion of magic without any lead-in or warning at all and then was gone just as fast. Too fast for more than a bare glimpse of what it was. It was not stopped or seemingly hindered by any of the castle's wards or protections, almost as if the castle wasn't here. But why would this explosion happen in the castle if not for the castle being here? The concentration of magical energy so strong and so old is like a magnet. She was thinking about how she could find out more about this mess and she had an idea. Then she stopped and yelled out "Dobby!". He then popped into place next to her and she turned to see his smiling aged face.

"Hello Professor Weasley! What does you want from old Dobby? Always happy to help, though a little slow these days."

"Hello dear Dobby," she asked with a fond smile. "Is there anything you can tell me about what happened in the Main Hall this morning?"

Dobby looked rather sheepish and a little shaken. Reluctantly, slowly and with emphasis, he said "Yes Professor Weasley. It was Big Magic! Not like Elfs magics, not like Wizards magics. It was very big. Different kind, not from here. From other side of here."

"The other side of here?" she asked, quite confused.

"There are many sides of here, this place. Many places, all here. Two places touched, here. She is now here. We wonder to see her."

"Who is here, Dobby?" Professor Weasley crouched down to talk to Dobby more eye to eye.

"The girl, from nowhere. She is here now. We don't know all that it means, we can not say right now, " he said softly.

"Can not say? Why not, Dobby?" she said with amazement.

"Oh, too important to guess. Must know more."

"Will you tell me when you find out, Dobby?"

"Yes, headmistress. Dobby will tell you."

"Thank you Dobby." He popped out of existence immediately.

Professor Weasley proceeded down the hall deep in thought.

As she was rounding a corner Johnny came blasting down the hall and almost crashed into her. "Mr. Travers, slow down!"

"Yes, Headmistress! Find Potions Master!" and he was gone, not even slowing down a bit.

The Headmistress came into the infirmary, trying to make sense of the confusion of students, beds, and noise.

"Oh, Headmistress. You're here, good!" said Nurse Morse in some relief as she came out from behind some curtains. "We have several students with minor injuries that will be fixed soon, but we have one very serious case."

"The blond girl?" the Headmistress asked.

"Yes, what happened! Something hit her very hard. Many broken bones, large cuts, and burns. I've repaired her broken bones, but it will take much more time than normal before she will be able to move well." The look of shock on Nurse Mason was so plain it was startling. "And I don't recognize her. Do you know who she is?" confusion taking over her face.

A yell started escalating to a scream from one of the beds, rising to the thud of a mattress and the crash of bed frame parts flying across the room from behind the curtains of the blond girl's bed. The two women starting moving toward the noise. A bed frame pole swung through the curtains tearing them down revealing the blond girl holding the pole. A look of fear bordering on insanity on her face, she threw the pole through the opposite window and ran, jumping on the window sill and leaped out the window to the 40 foot drop to the grounds below. Professor Weasley instinctively reached out with her wand to catch the girl as she fell, but as her magic was about to connect a huge explosion shattering all the windows, threw them back off their feet knocking the wind out of them, and blowing the glass and bed curtains all over the room in the shock wave and gust of wind that followed.

Surreal silence surrounded by motion again, then ringing as everyone's hearing started to come back again. The students were screaming and Nurse Mason rose to kneeling and trying to help Professor Weasley up off the floor. When Professor Weasley's dizziness settled down she stood up fully and said "accio broom!", then tried to stumble toward the windows through the rubble. Nurse Mason started unsteadily stumbling over the rubble toward the other students. When the broom arrived the professor hopped on and flew slowly and wobblingly out the now enlarged window to see the blond girl laying on the ground looking again crumpled. She flew down and found her alive. Professor Weasley sighed and again levitated her back up to the now damaged infirmary, through the window.

"Nurse Mason, I think we need the private room," the Headmistress said in complete shock.

Professor Colton came running down the hall and into the infirmary and looked at the destruction. "What the bloody hell was that!" he screamed, looking dumbfounded.

"Professor Colton, over here please," Professor Weasley called. He moved, picking his way through the glass, stonework, and general rubble. "Can you set up the private room? We need sensory isolation, shields, and above all keep her out until we can wake her slowly. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am. But you sound like ... Did she do this?" he asked.

"I don't know. She threw the bed frame out the window and jumped. When I tried to levitate her fall, that's when the explosion happened."

"She ... bed? ... jumped out the window?" His mind did not know how to connect the dots.

"Yes, she looked insane with fear. I think we need to watch her very carefully. And wake her very slowly."

**Johnny**

Johnny was running down the halls toward the Potions Master's office when he heard a huge explosion and he stumbled and almost tripped as he flinched. Soon he met the Potions Master, Professor Lombard, coming up the hallway with a startled look on his usually very composed face.

"Professor, a girl in the infirmary is critical!" he said and they started running back the way he came.

**Professor Weasley**

Professor Weasley stood in the infirmary, idly trying to fix one of the broken windows while musing tiredly about the events so far this morning. She was beginning to think she was getting too old for this much excitement. Especially since the last few decades had been so quiet. Her thoughts were interrupted by the Potions Master coming into the infirmary. "Johnny, thank you for bringing Professor Lombard. You should go back to your common room now and wait for classes to start again at 10:00."

"Yes, ma'am," Johnny said quite reluctantly. He turned and slowly took a wandering path toward the door, hoping someone would call him back and give him a task.

"Professor Weasley, how may I help?" he asked with quiet assured tones. A man of few words but much confidence and composure.

"We have a seriously injured girl in the private room here. Our first problem is that we don't know who she is, she is not a student."

"Mmm, that's a very interesting problem. How could she have even gotten into the castle?" he said thoughtfully.

"Yes, well, there's a lot more. She may not be very stable and has shown some tendency for violence. We have not been able to talk to her yet, and I think we need to be very careful when we try. Can you develop a regimen of potions to keep her unconscious until we are ready?"

"Yes, I see. I'll have something in an hour."

"Make it faster. We also have some evidence that needs gathering." She tried to be circumspect in her description. "There is some liquid splashes in the Main Hall that need to be investigated; what are they and are they toxic. And there is a severed arm in the Main Hall."

"A - what?" he asked quite shocked, his composure slipping.

"A severed arm that is larger than you are." His jaw dropped. "We need to know what it is, or - was. And then, hopefully, where it came from and how it got into the school."

His face paled as these ideas sunk in. "Yes, ma'am. I will do my best."

"And quickly, please. I'd like to have a meeting to discuss what we are able to discover at noon today."

**Johnny**

Johnny walked into the Gryfindor common room and was immediately set upon by - pretty much everyone. Where had he been? What did he know? Who was in the infirmary? So many questions and so little brain-space for such a confused little student. He moved near the fire and plopped down in a chair, everyone following him over and still firing questions at him. "Ok, ok, ... wait, wait, WAIT!" As the questions finally slowed down. "We all heard the noises from the Main Hall, right?"

General muttering of a basic "yeah" from all around.

"After the boom, I ran into the hall and saw several students who were hurt." The noise burst forth threatening to swallow everything, "no I won't say who!", and it didn't slow down. "But - BUT!", and it slowed down as he waited. "There was a huge severed arm of a monster!." The noise hit the roof and threatened to take it off.

Professor Zelazney came through the portrait hole, "Quiet! Quiet!" he yelled to get everyone's attention. "I'm here to find out what you saw. If you were in the Main Hall this morning I need to talk to you about what you saw, so come see me now." A few people started to move forward. "That includes you Mr. Travers."

"Yes, sir," he said tiredly.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**The Meeting of Minds**

All of the staff members were filtering into the staff room as new chairs we conjured to accommodate, especially since the nicer ones were already taken. The mood was tense with a constant chatter. Everyone had too many questions and lots of expectations for this meeting. The rumors had been flying thick and heavy all morning.

"Are we ready to get started?" the Headmistress said strongly over the noise. The room settled to heavy silence. "First, let me start with the basic facts. This morning, just before 9, a very powerful burst of magic exploded in the Main Hall causing minor damage, injuring several students, and leaving some ... residue. The damage and students will be fine but the residue could be difficult. One is a blond girl of maybe 12 to 14 who is not a student." Murmurs and comments rose into the air. "But potentially the larger issue involves the severed arm of a monster." Everyone's face went pale and no sound was heard, a testament to the level of shock. "This arm is larger than I am and it is not even slightly human in form. So to delve deeper, let's start with witness reports. Did any staff see the event?" No response. "Professor Zelazney? What did the students see?"

"There were only 2 direct witnesses: Mr. Bundy and Miss Selmer. Everyone else was either facing away from the event or came in after the noise. Both students were slightly injured in the event so they don't have complete memories. But putting the fragments together gives a complete, though not very precise, view." he paused to gather his thoughts. "To summarize, the students saw a very bright flash of light followed by a number of people appearing in the hall, maybe 5 or 6, and a giant monster who filled the hall. The monster swung the mace hitting a number of the people, there was a flash of light and the hacked off arm of the monster fell to the floor. The next bit is a somewhat confused, but it seems that the monster kicked the unknown girl and there was an explosion that wrecked the hall and the monster and the other people then disappeared. Leaving only our students, the girl from nowhere, and the arm. And a lot of blood and what looks to be blood from the monster."

The noise started up from the staff, "Lets hold questions until the end, please," Professor Weasley said. "Professor Young and then Professor Lombard, what did you find at the scene?"

"Quite surprisingly, there was no magic residue." Confused questions started up, but Professor Young continued. "None that we could see. The destruction in the hall and the injuries to the students were all due to the over-pressure wave from the explosion. There were burn marks on the floor, on the girl's clothes, but no chemical residue that would be present with a chemical explosion." Confused silence. "Everything is repairable, but it will take some time to put back, not the stonework and picture frames, but the magic wards and structures that protect and animate the school environment. Most worrying, I could not determine how this monster and this girl got past all the wards and into the school. Nor how the monster, and evidently a number of people, got back out. And undetected."

"Yes, indeed these are very worrying questions, which we will take up in a moment. Professor Lombard?" the Headmistress prompted.

"I tested the goo and it is poisonous if taken internally, or gets into a wound, so I have started looking for a treatment for it since the girl from nowhere had it all over her wounds. It is actually the blood of the monster. There were, by the way, goo from 3 different monsters splattered around though we only saw one in the Main Hall." The back-benchers raised some noise at that statement and quickly died down again. "The darker stains are human blood, and there are blood splatters from at least 8 different people spread around. It is doubtful that any of those 8 people survived, given how much blood was present. I tested the mace and found that the discolouration was due to layer upon layer of dried blood, both human and monster and what may be others as well. It was certainly dented enough to show significant use. I'm afraid it will likely take some time to identify what the monster was because it will take some significant searching in the library. Unless the girl knows. Based on the size of the arm I estimate the size of the monster to be at least 16 feet tall, depending on the monster's proportions."

"Alright, I'll give my observations next," said Professor Weasley. "When the noises first started in the Main Hall, there was no lead-in or build-up, there was just an explosion of magic. Which is very strange since you found no magical residue, Professor Zelazney. I could definitely sense some sort of magic, though it could have been the magic of the castle environment being pushed aside or damaged. Regardless, it was very powerful. So powerful that I not only sensed it, and could see it, I could almost touch it. It was too short-lived to discern more that just it's strength. But I did notice that there seemed to be a different quality to it. I don't know how to describe what was different about it, just that it seemed so. Which, if true, would most likely mean that the magic was even stronger that I thought because I may not be very good at sensing it. But this was just the first incident this morning." A few murmurs started because some had not heard much about this. "Nurse Mason, can you give us your experience?"

"Yes, Ma'am. The two students, Mr. Bundy and Miss Selmer, are recovering well, physically. Broken eardrums, dislocated shoulder, broken wrist, light concussion on both. Both splattered with green goo, though that may not be a factor since they had no wounds. The blond girl from nowhere, on the other hand, had significant injuries. Both legs broken in several places - each. Both arms broken, pelvis broken, internal bleeding, likely concussion, though we won't know how bad until she becomes conscious. Luckily, no brain swelling yet, though there is probably some fracturing. The force of the explosion, or the monsters kick, threw her against the wall with significant force. But that was all just the injuries from the Main Hall."

"Any clues from her clothes, as torn as they were?" Professor Weasley asked.

"No Professor, at the time I was too shocked by her condition and didn't realize she was not a student so I destroyed them," Nurse Mason admitted sadly.

"Yes, then after the infirmary explosion?" asked Professor Weasley.

"Yes, well, after I healed most of the first set of injuries, then came her escape attempt," Nurse Mason was obviously shocked.

Professor Weasley picked up the story from there. "Maybe I should explain the basics at this point. The second explosion happened after we got the blond girl up to the infirmary. Nurse Mason did an expert job at patching her up. And soon after she woke up, much earlier than she should have been able to. She proceeded to tear the bed frame apart with her bare hands, throw part of the frame through the infirmary window and jump out." Discussion spiked considerably until Professor Weasley started again. "Given that it is a 40 foot drop from the infirmary to the grounds below, I reached out with my wand to levitate her and stop her fall. When my magic was about to connect with her, there was a truly huge explosion which just about collapsed the infirmary. I was able to summon a broom and fly down to the girl where I found her still alive and levitate her back into the infirmary. She is now in the private room in the infirmary under continuous sedation until such time as we can safely wake her up." Agreeable murmurs spread through the group. "Her second set of physical wounds were not as bad and we might begin to slowly wake her up in a few days, depending on how much we learn about her. I must tell you that after she tore the bed frame apart and before she threw the frame out the window she looked at me and I must say she looked insane with fear. Anything else Nurse Mason?"

"Yes, her second set of injuries were less severe, but none the less, quite difficult. She fell at least 40 feet from the Infirmary window, re-breaking her legs, breaking 3 vertebrae, and one arm. Luckily the grass was thick and there was a good slope to the hillside below the window. Her wounds are now mostly healed, though she needs to stay in bed for a few days to finish healing her vertebrae. Her wounds are indistinguishable between a fall and an explosion. She is now sedated on a rotating schedule to make sure she stays that way until we are ready to bring her out slowly. She is now in the private room in the infirmary. But that is not what concerns me the most, Headmistress."

With quite a bit of surprise, Professor Weasley said "there's more?"

Nurse Mason looked very pained and continued slowly, "Yes, there is significant evidence of on-going long-term trauma. Evidence of broken bones in many places, bones that haven't healed well, as if they received minimal treatment. Numerous surface scars from lacerations and burns, but also deeper scar tissue from what are likely stab wounds. Not to mention malnutrition, chronic dehydration, parasites of all sorts; digestive, blood, and skin. Many I've never heard of before. This girl is a mess! And has been for some time."

The room was deeply shocked with a painful silence. Eventually, Professor Weasley said "Yes, we will have to remedy that, Nurse Mason." Nurse Mason nodded with her head bowed.

"Do you think she caused these explosions, Professor Weasley?", the Deputy Headmaster asked.

"It's possible, but I did not feel any magic from her, or in the explosion either. The explosion seemed purely physical with no chemical residue that I could find. But before we get into questions there are a few more we need to hear from. Dobby!" the Headmistress said. Dobby popped into being next to her.

"Yes Headmistress? What can Dobby do for you?", Dobby said.

"Excuse me, but why ask the house elves, Professor. What can they tell us?" her deputy asked.

"Ah, Professor Colton you're aware that the house elves have their own brand of magic that is slightly different than that of Wizarding magic." He nodded tensely. "It's as if it ran on a different frequency range than ours, though overlapping a bit. Most importantly, they can see things we can not. They have strength in areas where we do not. Their magic is actually older than ours. And they have significant strength, even though they don't look it. You would be well advised to remember that." Dobby looked at Professor Colton with a long blank stare, so uncharacteristic of his normal jolly self. Professor Colton got the urge to squirm.

"My apologies, Dobby." At least he had the graciousness to apologize, even though he likely didn't fully understand why.

"Dobby, could you tell us what happened in the Main Hall this morning?" the Headmistress asked quietly.

"Yes, Headmistress." Dobby straightened up and looked proud in this circle of wizards. "We have tried hard to find out about this for you." His language and his manner changed in response to the Deputy's challenge. "The magic in the Hall was different than Elf and different than Wizard. Elf and Wizard magics can not stop this magics. It was very strong magics." He looked around to impress his seriousness on everyone. "There are many sides to every place. Two sides of the Hall touched this morning and things came through. The girl, from the other side, is now here. We do not know if she has any magic, because it might be different magic and we can not see it. Her magic may not work on this side. We must wait and find out."

"So you don't know if it was her magic that brought her here or was that different magic?" the Headmistress asked.

"No we do not." he said.

"Can you tell me anything about what happened in the infirmary later?" Professor Weasley asked.

"We did not see any magic then." Dobby said.

"Do you know anything about the giant arm in the Main Hall? What kind of creature it belongs to?" she asked gently.

"There are some - old tales, that - remind us of something like this. We are not sure," Dobby said cautiously.

Professor Weasley asked slowly, "What do they remind you of, Dobby?"

"Demons, Professor Weasley. Very bad ones."

The room was very quiet as everyone contemplated Dobby's statement. Fear was tingling everyone's spine.

"Well, thank you very much Dobby. If you do notice anything, please do let me know."

"Yes, Headmistress." A pop and he was gone.

"Professor Dumbledor? Could you give us a report?" the Headmistress turned and said to the large painting to her left.

"Yes professor Weasley. I was not in the Main Hall this morning, and those who were saw only the back of the monster, being on the Great Hall side of the Main Hall. The paintings who would have seen more were on the stairway side of the hall and they are still too damaged to say anything. It seems that the explosion happened in front of the monster, which shielded most of the paintings on the Great Hall side." Dumbledor gave his report slowly and seriously.

Professor McGonagle had joined him in the painting and was more brisk and pointed, "Unfortunately, we are not likely to be able to ask them any time soon. Repairing the canvases will be straight forward. Rebuilding the magic to animate them and link them into the other castle paintings will take quite some time, given all the other damage that has occurred."

Professor Weasley was quiet and thoughtful, "Yes it will. Bloody Baron? Can you give us a report?"

The Bloody Baron seemed to be slow in responding, "Yes, I am here Headmistress. Unfortunately, the ghosts of the castle were all scattered in other parts of the castle during the incident and none noticed anything unusual. Some, in far corners of the castle heard nothing at all."

"Thank you, Baron." Professor Weasley said as he faded out.

Professor turned back to the group again. "I did not see any magic, or the result of any magic, in the infirmary either. That means that this girl either has no magic or her magic is so different than ours, on such a different frequency range essentially, that we can not detect it, or stop it." She paused to take a breath. "Questions?"

"Her magic could be different than ours? How can that be?" asked the Caretaker, Mr. Justins.

"There are different - styles, you might say - to magic. For example the magic of the House Elves is quite different from ours, as is the Centaurs," Professor Zelazney stated, with a bit of posturing. He was trying to be subtle, but for those with any sensitivity, he was failing.

"Headmistress, what do you mean by 'frequency range'?" her deputy asked.

"In this application it is a metaphor. Do you understand radio, Professor Colton?" She hoped to explain at least a little bit to the rest of the faculty as well.

"Yes, headmistress. I think I do." he replied.

She continued. "Radio is the very precise wiggling of the combination of electricity (basically, lightning) and magnetism (how magnets work). This precise wiggling can be used to make a signal. How fast you wiggle is called the frequency count or the number of wiggles per second. If you slightly vary the wiggle frequency you can signal different things."

"I've never heard of this _radio_ before, Professor Weasley. What is the spell for it?" asked Professor Lombard.

"No spells, it is muggle in origin."

"Muggles can do that?" Professor Lombard asked, quite shocked.

"Yes, they can Professor. We have to be on the same frequency - so to speak - in order to hear each other, or in this case, to sense and interact with the other magic," Professor Weasley said thoughtfully.

Professor Colton looked very worried. "This is quite serious, Professor. I think we were quite lucky that only 2 students were slightly injured this time. Did the castle notice anything?"

"Only the physical effects, Professor Colton. I have asked the castle to notify us immediately of any more effects like these. Also all the paintings, the ghosts, and the Centaurs - though they probably already know all about this," she said with a grin, and the rest responded with more smiles. "I suppose I should ask them, just to be thorough." She looked around the group. "Any other questions?"

Professor Colton stirred to life out of his thoughts, "Wasn't there some emergency book in the library, Professor?"

Professor Weasley took a minute to gather her thoughts, "Oh, yes! It's been so long - and it's been so quiet these last few decades - even I'd forgotten about that. Thank you Professor Colton. You all need to review the Hogwarts Emergency Procedures Manual by end of day today."

"The what?" several staff said.

Professor Weasley conjured several books onto her desk and started handing them out to those most confused. "Back in the days of Voldemort - you remember hearing about those don't you?"

"Yes, yes..." several people intoned.

"Well, we were flat footed most of the time during those years. Early on in my tenure here I developed this emergency plan for Hogwarts. I expect you to read it, memorize it, breath it! This defines our criterion and thresholds for making decisions and our organizational structure in situations like we find ourselves."

Professor Zelazney had been skimming through the table of contents, "Professor, this is truly brilliant!"

"Why, thank you, but I must admit that I adapted it from the NATO Response Plan," the Headmistress said evenly. There were a few murmurs of confusion.

"I don't remember reading about this Nato in the Voldemort histories - who is it?" Professor Zelazney said quizzically.

"Ah – no professor, NATO is a muggle military defense organization. It stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization," she said, trying her hardest not to smirk. "I also borrowed from the US Incident Command System."

"Ah – Really?"

Professor Weasley took a deep breath and mumbled something about not having any dots to connect and vowed to teach her own advanced Muggle Studies class to the seventh years _and_ the staff. "Everyone, read the Emergency Plan. Mr. Justins, you may begin the cleanup and reconstruction in the Main Hall and the infirmary. Now, if you will all excuse me, I need to notify the Ministry."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Johnny Come Lately**

Johnny casually walked down the hall after his last class of the day, heading toward the Great Hall for his well-earned dinner. His mind started wandering back to the events of the last few days, all the sound and fury surrounding the explosions. Of course all the excitement had melted away rather quickly and he hadn't thought of it again until just now. It was a little perplexing to him why everyone got so worked up over it, and still was by all accounts.

"...injuries were so intense, I don't know how she survived. Not to mention the evidence of the years of abuse. The utter neglect is unbelievable. It's like she came from a war zone!" The voice of Professor Colton came wafting out of a passing classroom and it caught Johnny's ear so he slowed down out of curiosity.

"Yes, that is quite shocking. And who is she? And where did she come from? We don't even know that basic information." The voice of Professor Trillaby, the herbology professor came floating out. At this, Johnny was struck. Who are they talking about? Johnny slid to the wall and faded into an alcove where he might be able to hear more.

Professor Colton obliged. "Professor Weasley will try waking her up in the next day or so, so hopefully we should find out soon. Including, hopefully, how she and that monster got into the school in the first place." Johnny's stomach dropped to the floor. This was the girl from the hall? She wasn't from Hogwarts? His brain skipped a few beats. He thought that particular excitement was over and gone.

"Yes, quite worrying. All the wards and protections of the castle seemed as nothing, especially since she seems to have no magic. I just don't understand," professor Trillaby sighed.

"I agree. I suppose there's nothing to it but to wait. I'm sure Professor Weasley will get the answers. After all, she helped defeat Voldemort," Professor Colton said confidently. "Well, I should be getting to my duties." Johnny took that as his cue and hurried down the hall, not waiting for Professor Trillaby to add his pleasantries. His mind was awhirl. He had no idea, hadn't even thought twice about it. Somehow, he didn't understand how, this fragment of conversation had shaken his world. It was not so comfortable any more.

As he got close to the Great Hall he turned aside and kept going toward the Infirmary. He wanted to know what happened. But how could he find out? Well... just ask, I suppose. He walked into the Infirmary and said, "Nurse Mason?" No answer. Maybe she went for dinner. He started to amble down the rows of beds looking for something, even though he had no idea what.

"Mr. Travers? How can I help you?" Nurse Mason popped out of her office and asked.

"Uhm ... well, I wanted to know about the girl that I brought here after the explosions. How is she?"

Nurse Mason paused and stared at Johnny with a concerned look, evidently considering how to answer. Eventually she said quietly "she is not good Mr. Travers."

Johnny's stomach fell yet again. "What happened to her?"

"We don't know very much, yet." Nurse Mason spoke softly with uncharacteristic emotion.

"Who is she?"

Nurse Mason seemed to come back to herself, her brisk manner slowly returning. "You'll have to ask Professor Weasley about that. You should hurry off to dinner before you miss it." A bit of a soft smile lingering.

"Yes, thank you Nurse Mason." Johnny headed back toward the door and on to the Great Hall, his hunger having returned in force.

**Professor Weasley**

Professor Weasley was perplexed that her attempts at legillimency on the girl from nowhere lead nowhere. She was blank. Professor Weasley could sense almost nothing from the girl's mind. They will have to wake her up a little farther and try again. Fortunately, her other wounds are almost all healed as well, so beginning the process of waking her up is appropriate. Tomorrow.

**Johnny**

Johnny walked distractedly into the Great Hall in a vague search for dinner. His thoughts still swirling around this strange unknown girl. What did Professor Colton call her, the girl from nowhere? He hadn't paid any attention to the wild, ridiculous, rumours that flew around the school; most of them were usually rubbish. But now he considered how much rubbish. He thought he should ask about them again and see.

"Johnny! Hows the craic, man?" Jamison said while sitting down next to him.

"Um - momentous?"

"Ochk. Hopeless!" Jamison shook his head, then looked at him again. "What's with you? Mistook the Haggis again?"

Geary came and sat down next to Johnny, his almost shoulder-length brown hair sweeping in front of his face as his tall frame barely folded into the bench. Johnny was still quite distracted, "What? No, no. I was just thinking –"

"Whoa, careful there..." Geary said with fear.

"– About that girl." Johnny tried to be casual.

"A girl, huh. When did this start and who is she?" Jamison said sounding like a cat eyeing a bird.

Johnny gave a frown, "The one caught in the explosions a few days ago."

"What? You're after her? We don't even know who she is," Jamison smirked.

"Yes, that's what Professor Colton said," Johnny said, still too distracted to notice what Jamison was implying.

Jamison paused mid-bite and fixed his eyes on Johnny, "wha?". Food distorting his words. He gulped, "the professors don't even know who she is? Isn't she a student?"

"I overheard some professors talking and they seemed to suggest that she'd come from a war zone or been tortured - badly."

"She's not a student? How the bloody hell did she get in the school?" Geary blurted out.

"Oh, man. I wonder if some of the rumors are actually true," Jamison looked worried.

"What rumors are those? I haven't been paying any attention to them," Johnny was now quite focused.

Geary was the first to react, "One rumor had more than one monster in the hall. Another had 10 people in the hall. One said it was terrorists."

"Yea, terrorists - like Death Eater's great-grand-kids," Jamison said derisively.

"There was one story – from Bundy was it? He said the monster kicked a girl and then there was the explosion and then everything disappeared. Some rumors gave an explanation for the monsters, but I don't think anyone actually knows what the monsters are. But again, how did the one monster actually get in the school? How did that arm get in here? No one seems to be very worried about that one, except me," Geary said in a very sober tone.

After a pause, Jamison continued, "Yes, and now you're saying that there was a mystery girl who came in with the monster."

"I think Professor Colton called her 'the girl from nowhere'. She didn't look any older than we are," Johnny said with a concerned frown. "After the explosion, her clothes looked shredded. I thought it was a result of the explosion, but maybe not. I didn't even think about it at the time."

"Hi Guys!" Amanda Reeves came over, sitting down next to Jamison, her long dark hair bound into a black velvet covered clasp at the back of her neck. She was taller than Johnny but not as tall as Jamison or Geary. And very pretty with a very open smile, and light blue eyes. "What's with the long faces? Oh, not the Haggis again."

They all laughed. Johnny confided, "No, we were a little concerned about the girl in the Infirmary. Evidently no one knows who she is, not even the Professors."

"Ah, yes, some very interesting questions there," Amanda said quietly.

Johnny looked up, "You know something, don't you. How?"

"Maybe," she said.

"Ok, I'll bite, what?" Jamison challenged.

Amanda's voice lowered even more and they all leaned in to hear, "They don't know who she is. They've kept her under sedation until she's physically healed because they're not sure she's sane. They've never seen anything like the monster in the hall, including all the symbols on the arm. They have no idea how either the girl or the monster got in to the school, and thus no idea how to keep it out. There were no traces of magic or chemical residue in the Main Hall or the infirmary, yet two very large explosions tore both places apart. The girl shows evidence of torture or other violence over a long period of time. They are going to try to wake her up tomorrow morning. Anything else you wanted to know?"

"How the hell do you know all that!?" Johnny looked ready to blow a gasket.

"Oh, you just have to know who to talk to and how to listen. I am in Slytherin, after all." She smiled sweetly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**At The Rising Of The Sun**

Professor Weasley stood in the private room in the Infirmary, looking at the small girl asleep in the bed. The girl's slightly over shoulder length blond hair now looking clean and healthy, her skin just as improved. A peaceful, yet still a somewhat blank look on her face from the sedatives. There were still many things to be concerned about. Her mental and emotional state, to name two. She had looked quite insane the last time she had been seen awake. Her physical state is now much improved. Her injuries are all healed, her malnutrition is on the mend, her parasites are all gone, and her scars are fading away due to the potions. Though the reasons her health was so bad is still of great concern; how did she acquire all those injuries. And to see them on one so young was still so very difficult.

And the largest issue yet: was the monster that attacked this girl (or any other monsters) still a threat? They had no idea what it was, where it came from, it's strengths, or it's weaknesses. And, as far as they knew, they seemed to have little defense against it. This left the Headmistress feeling vulnerable in ways she hadn't felt since the Voldemort days, some 80 odd years ago.

"We are ready, Professor." Nurse Mason interrupted Professor Weasley's thoughts and brought her back to the small room.

She looked around and saw Professors Colton, Lombard, and Nurse Mason watching her and waiting to start waking the girl up slowly. "Yes, let us begin." Nurse Mason started wave her want slightly to withdraw the magic, just a bit at a time. Professor Weasley started to concentrate on reading this young girl. For a few moments, there was nothing, just as there had been for these last few days while her body was healing. Then she could begin to feel something. Nothing discernible yet, just not nothing, not blankness. Then she began to feel stirrings of emotions, at first indistinguishable from her own, but as they became stronger they began to differentiate into the girls emotions. Fear. Blinding, incapacitating fear, overwhelming in it's depth. It took a huge effort to not be swept away in this ocean of fear, to keep it separate enough from herself. It was so painful to see these feeling in this girl. Then came the first images. That monster, or ones like it with amulets, gauntlets, chain mail, axes, maces, knives and other weapons. They were attacking her and others, ferociously, chasing her. It became very difficult not to get swept into the emotions with the impact of the images. The fear, the running, seeing others cut down and dismembered by the monsters, it was threatening to overwhelm her.

"Wait, stop..." she said out loud, her breathing was deep and ragged. She had not noticed her own body's reaction. Nurse Mason stopped removing more magic for a short rest.

"Are you all right, Professor?" Professor Colton asked.

"Yes, I just need a bit of a breather. It is so intense." She had a moment where she thought the emotions would overwhelm her again. She stood breathing for a moment or two, tears starting down her face. A noise started up, an eery sound, that rose up almost into the realm of a scream and then came back down. A wail of such sadness and pain came from the girl that it broke their hearts. The girl didn't stop to take a breath, she just stopped breathing holding the silent wail, her face contorted in pain. Professor Weasley concentrated again on the girl, her own emotions running high. She tried to connect again, she reached out. The girl finally took a breath and let out a scream that trailed off into another wail. She made the connection and immediately felt like she was hit with a big electric shock, then was hit by a wave of dizziness. The wail was broken as the girl convulsed in her bed.

Professor Weasley opened her eyes and looked up into Nurse Mason and Professor Colton's faces bending over her. She realized she was laying on the floor. She realized she was mumbling painful sounds.

"Just relax Professor, give yourself a minute," Nurse Mason said soothingly. Then she heard some whimpering and crying from the bed, but this was more normal crying than the unearthly wailing that came before. Nurse Morse got up and went to the bed. Professor Weasley struggled to get up with the help of Professor Colton. She had an intense desire to see the girl, to hold her and not let her go. She made it to the bed and sat down, reached over to take the girl in her arms and a spark, like a static electric shock struck her finger. The girl reacted with a tremor and Professor Weasley wrapped her arms around this small girl and pulled her into an embrace. The girl sobbed into her shoulder. Professor Weasley quietly crying as well, tears running down her face.

They stayed this way for what seemed like quite a while. Eventually, the girl's sobs quieted down and she was left breathing heavily. She began to mumble and try to say something. Professor Weasley whispered to the girl in a voice constrained by tears, "you're safe now. You are safe here," repeating it many times.

After a while the girl started to try to say something again, but it sounded like she had a very thick accent of some sort. Professor Weasley wasn't sure where the idea came from, but she started to hum a lullaby, one she had not heard in so many years. This simple song, sung to this small girl, almost broke her heart. She almost couldn't contain the emotions. It became almost a prayer for this little girl, to sing for her. Her own tears still coming down, she kept singing softly. Eventually her voice ran out and she sat hugging the girl for a few more minutes. The soft sounds of sleeping came from the girl now. She slowly laid the girl back down and realized how completely drained she was.

"Nurse Mason, I need to rest too." she whispered.

"Yes, Professor. Here is another bed." She conjured another bed beside the girl's.

"Wake me if she wakes, please," Professor Weasley moved to the other bed and lay down.

"Yes, Headmistress." Nurse Morse started her vigil and kept watch over them, motioning the other professors out of the room.

**Johnny**

After his last class before lunch, Johnny swept by the Great Hall heading for the infirmary. He was determined to see or at least ask about the mystery girl. Along the way he managed to pick up Jamison and Geary. They had talked about this last night while studying. As they approached the infirmary, just outside the door was Amanda waiting. She looked up as they approached and said, "I heard you were going to try to see her this morning. I'm glad I didn't miss it."

"Good. Thanks." Johnny said and nodded, moving through the doors. As they walked down the ward, between the bed rows. Johnny called out "Nurse Mason?"

She quickly came out of her office at the end of the ward and said "Yes? What can I do for you?"

"I - We - wanted to know if we could see the girl from nowhere," Johnny said a little nervously.

Nurse Mason reacted with surprise at the title he gave the girl. Johnny quietly kicked himself for calling her that, afraid he may have betrayed that he had overheard the conversation between Professors Colton and Trillaby.

"She is asleep now and desperately needs her rest." said Nurse Mason.

"So you have tried to wake her up?" Johnny said with concern.

Nurse Mason looked surprised again, considering her words carefully, "yes, we have woken her up but she was so exhausted by the experience that she fell back asleep again and is resting nicely."

A noise, some unfamiliar words came from Nurse Mason's office and she reacted instantly running inside and through to the private room behind. Johnny and crew followed quietly, stopping just outside the door to the private room. Inside, the girl was sitting up bleary-eyed as Professor Weasley came to sit on the far side of the bed facing the girl. The girl was not focusing well, still blinking and trying to get her eyes to work. She started saying some unfamiliar words in a strange language with rising fear until Professor Weasley said softly "you are safe here." The girl immediately calmed down and looked at her with surprise shifting to rapt attention. She said something, stumbling over her words and trying again. The sounds were unknown to Johnny. Nurse Mason stood just inside the door mumbling translation spells, trying to find the right one.

The motion caught the girls attention and she looked toward Nurse Mason and the door, catching sight of Johnny and his friends. Fear moved over her face and she got to her knees and pointed at them, she said some strange words. It didn't seem to be fear of them so much as maybe fear for them. She paused, seeming to notice that Johnny and his friends were calmly smiling. She looked confused, dropped her hand, sat back down and said a few more words. Professor Weasley smiled and reached out her hand to touch the girl's hand. She received a slight shock again, the girl flinching a bit. The girl then melted and moved to embrace Professor Weasley, desperately holding on. She continued to mumble strange words while Nurse Mason tried more translation spells.

"Is there anything we can do to help, Professor Weasley?" Johnny asked quietly.

The girl sat up surprised and looked at Johnny intently.

"It seems you are," Professor Weasley said. The girl got off the bed and took a step toward Johnny, wearing infirmary pajamas, her hand outstretched toward him.

Johnny had a funny idea. He stretched out his hand toward her hand and got a bit of a shock when they touched, they both flinched a bit. He started to hum an imitation of a waltz and he began to dance. She looked shocked, but did not move away. Slowly a smile began to grow. She started to hum something in response, in the same meter and began to move a bit. Jamison, Geary, and Amanda started to giggle. The girl looked at them with renewed surprise, then started to smile even more. They played at dancing a bit more, when the girl's stomach growled loudly. She stopped, her face fell, and she looked very hungry and weak. Johnny laughed softly and gave her a hug.

Professor Weasley quickly asked, "Nurse Mason, could you step out to the main ward, get some food and come back without startling her?"

The nurse moved smoothly to comply. Johnny helped the girl back to sitting on the bed, she looked so weak. Nurse Mason walked back in with a tray full of food and set it on the bed next to the girl. She looked like her jaw would hit the floor as the smell of hot food filled the room. Johnny just smiled, picked up a cup of grapes, popped one in his mouth and extended the cup to her. She looked at him for a moment, while her stomach started making a lot more noise, and she took one. Her face positively exploded in ecstasy with a string of strange words. Johnny chuckled, gave her a hug and stepped back to let her eat. She ate ravenously, finishing off everything on the tray. She looked tired.

"We should probably let her get some rest," Professor Weasley said.

"Yes, but one thing first, Professor," Johnny said. He pointed at his chest and said "Johnny". The girl and Johnny both repeated his name a few times and ended with a passable sound. Johnny then pointed at Amanda and repeated the process. By the time they were done the girl looked very tired and very happy. Johnny, then pointed at the girl with a questioning look.

She pointed at herself and was about to speak, then got a confused look. She looked sadly, pleadingly, at Johnny. She looked about ready to cry again. Johnny stepped closer and gave her a hug and said softly "You are safe here. We'll try again tomorrow."

As she yawned again, Johnny patted the pillow and she caught the idea. She nodded and laid down. Before sleeping, she reached out her hand and said "Johnny" with a bit of a strange accent still. Johnny reached out and held her hand for a moment. She squeezed it and was then overtaken by a big yawn and let go. She was breathing softly asleep within moments. Nurse Mason dimmed the lights down and everyone moved into the main ward.

"Well, thank you all. I think that went much better than I had hoped with you all here," Professor Weasley said as she indicated Johnny, Jamison, Geary, and Amanda.

"Thank you Professor. I was rather worried about her," Johnny admitted.

"Not half as worried as I was. Her situation did not look good at all. But I think it is safe to say that she is now much better and you all are now drafted into helping her," the Professor said with a thoughtful expression.

"That would be very nice, thank you very much." Johnny said and the rest agreed.

The Professor turned to Nurse Mason, "Please set some more food near her bed and set an alarm for when she wakes up. Also, try to keep all magic out of her sight until we can test if she has any magic."

"You don't think she would? What would that mean?" asked Amanda.

"I'm afraid to say that if she doesn't have any magical abilities then we will be forced to turn her over to the muggle authorities," Professor Weasley said

Johnny looked pained, "but Professor, she came here from what looks to be a magical world through magical means."

"Yes, but that was there and she is here now, so we must abide the the laws here. And those say that if she has no magical abilities she must go to the muggle authorities. I find that possibility unlikely, so I don't think you should worry too much. We just need to - very gently, mind you - find out what abilities she has. It is likely to be a very different kind of magic, since I can sense no magic in her – no magic of our style," she added as Johnny's face fell. "Until we find out more, please do not try to talk to her without me present."

"Yes, Professor," they all intoned in unison, as if from a dirge.

The Professor had a wry smile on her face, "That was very good. I'm so glad I added music to the curriculum."

Johnny, Jamison, Amanda, and Geary walked out of the infirmary slightly in shock.

"Wow. That was amazing," Johnny said breathlessly.

"Yes, and it's going to be no end of fun since she doesn't speak any English," Geary noted dryly.

"Geary, you're so positive," Amanda said teasingly with a smile in her voice. He grinned in response.

"How absolutely disorienting this all must be. She doesn't even remember her own name!" Jamison sounded overwhelmed.

"And if she doesn't have any magic they'll ship her off to muggles and it'll start all over again," Amanda said quite concerned.

Johnny thought about it and knew he couldn't leave it at that. He desperately hoped she had magic. "But, wait. How is Professor Weasley going to test her for magic if we can't talk to her?"

"Hmm, interesting question. But hey, we're talking about Professor Weasley, here. I'm sure she'll figure it out. Suppose the girl does have some magic capability, and we figure out a translation spell. Is she going to be _safe_ here? Are _we_ going to be safe here?" Geary was quite serious.

"You back on that again?" Jamison asked a little sharply.

"The question is, what was her role in the Main Hall explosion? Was she an Innocent bystander in that? Was she a victim? A participant? We just don't know what happened there." Geary was thoughtful now.

"What difference does it make?" Johnny sounded a little defensive.

"Geary has a point," Amanda said. "But until we know which it is, we don't treat her any differently. All that 'inocent until proven guilty' stuff. And somehow, I don't think she is on the wrong side."

Johnny could buy into that. He exhaled a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "Yes. I'm going to get up early tomorrow and go see her."

"I'm in," Jamison said. Geary and Amanda agreed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**No Worries For Today**

Johnny was sitting at the table in the Great Hall eating his breakfast quite early today. He had hoped to get breakfast early enough to stop by the infirmary and check on the girl from nowhere before he had to go to class. He was just getting started when Jamison showed up. Amanda, and Geary soon followed.

"Wow, you really are early!" Amanda was only teasing a little.

"What, you didn't think I was capable?" Johnny said with exaggerated shock.

"Well, I had never seen it before. But now I have existence proof that you can do it. That means no more whinging." Amanda drove in for the kill, smiling all the way.

"Ocht. Ya've done it now, me boy. Never show weakness." Jamison said sagely.

"Weakness? Na! It's a feint to the left! Just watch." Johnny was trying to look sly and confident.

"How do you talk to someone who doesn't remember anything?" Geary was thoughtful again, still trying to figure out this biggest of puzzles.

"It depends on how she lost her memory. If she lost it due to physical damage, she could lose an awful lot. If she lost it due to emotional trauma, then she will likely only lose memories around the trauma and keep all the basics of society, and how to swallow and walk and stuff." Amanda was on a roll.

"That depends on what society she came from. If it was like ours, she's fine. Otherwise, all bets are off and she could be in deep yogurt." Geary was looking a bit shocked at his own speculation.

"A society not like ours? What're ya think'n, man?" Jamison said incredulously.

"Hmmm. Yes, think about it." Amanda was looking rather serious. "Evidence suggests she's got magic but Professor Weasley can't sense any. We don't know what language she speaks. A victim of torture, from a war zone. We don't have any wizarding wars happening anywhere do we? Complete with monsters?".

Everyone was thoughtful for a bit. Johnny was now focused, "ok, let's hurry."

**Professor Weasley**

Professor Weasley approached Nurse Mason's office after the alarm went off for the girl from nowhere's awakening. It was early Friday morning. She had spent some considerable time thinking about how to test the girl for magic without using language, or giving away magic to someone who might be a muggle. Especially since her magic may be significantly different than "normal". "How is our guest, Nurse Mason?"

"I've given her more food, Professor."

"Excellent. Now we will try our test. Hopefully this will work." Professor Weasley headed for the private room and the girl. She waited in the doorway, watching, waiting to be noticed. The girl was absorbed in her tray of food, studying everything intently, but not letting that get in the way of inhaling it. It brought a smile to her face, watching the girl. The girl's eyes strayed to a far corner of the tray and noticed Professor Weasley. She stiffened and brief flash of surprise, fear, and what looked like a predator flashed over her face, then faded to a shy smile as she saw Professor Weasley's smile. The Professor caught a bit of the fear-driven survival that she had seen in the girl previously, but that seemed to be fading out. "Hello." She moved slowly into the room, coming to sit on the other bed in the room.

"Professor Weasley," the girl said with a very thick accent and a shy smile.

The Professor laughed with delight and nodded, "yes, yes." She looked at the girl's food tray, picked up an apple slice, held it out and said "apple." The girl looked surprised, tilting her head to the side as if thinking or remembering. She seemed to get lost in her thoughts, her eyes glazing over, staring into the space surrounding the apple. Professor Weasley could sense confusion at hearing the sound. It seemed to trigger a lot of emotional turmoil with no specific images attached to it. The girl's fork partly slipped out of her hand and clattered to the tray, startling the girl and causing her to sit up and focus again. She looked a little embarrassed and focused on finishing her food.

"Nurse Mason, can you bring in the test?" Nurse Mason came in holding a tray, brought it to the Professor and went to stand near the door. It contained a number of objects that were charmed in various ways, by various staff members. All of the items but one were small doll-house furniture pieces. An overstuffed chair had a charm by Dobby that had an Elf concealment charm that made it very difficult for a wizard to see it. Another had standard wizarding anti-muggle concealment charms. Another had a Centaur charm and another had no charm at all. The last was a fragment of wood picture frame that was destroyed in the attack on the Main Hall. Professor Weasley brought the tray up to the girl to show her the items and see which ones she could see, or have some reaction to.

As the tray came close the girl smiled at the items and began to reach for them, then stopped and looked questioningly at Professor Weasley, who nodded. The girl reached in and picked up each furniture piece in turn and looked at each quite intently, arranging them into a sitting area on the tray, until her hand came close to the wood fragment. Her hand drew back with fear on her face like her hand was burned, cupped in her other hand. She looked at Professor Weasley, afraid and confused. Professor Weasley again felt the survival-fear from the girl but it was no longer attached to all the images of monsters, just the emotions. She put the tray down near the end of the bed indicating to Nurse Morse to take it away and smiled at the girl with relief. "You are quite magical indeed. Now if I could only talk to you."

"Nurse Mason, are you ready?" the Professor asked. Nurse Mason came to the door and nodded.

Professor Weasley started talking to the girl while Nurse Mason started trying translation spells and combinations of spells. The Professor was telling her the history of Hogwarts. All the while the girl looked more and more like the Professor was slowly coming unhinged. After quite a few minutes the girl looked up sharply and stared wide-eyed at the Professor. "Am I getting close, my dear?" The girl spoke some words that got translated into something sounding like ancient English, or maybe Anglo Saxon. "We're getting close Jennifer, keep trying." Professor Weasley continued talking while Nurse Mason tried a few more spells. Then they hit something.

The girls eyes went wide. "Yes! Yes! I understand little!" she said excitedly through the translation spells.

"Very good!" Professor Weasley said to the girl's beaming face. "Do you remember your name, Dear?"

Her face clouded over and became confused, "remember, –" she sighed a heavy sigh, "no." She shook he head absently and looked down.

"Do you remember anything about what happened to you before you were here?" the Professor asked.

The girl turned her face away, looking like she had failed a test. After a minute she shook her head.

"That is pretty normal for someone in your situation." The girl turned her face toward the Professor with a concerned and thoughtful expression. "I think it will come back to you in time. In the mean time I don't think you should worry about anything. You will need some time to fully recover your strength. And you are in the perfect place for that."

"Where am I?" she asked.

"This is a school. A place to learn and grow. And a place to heal. Would you like to pick a name for yourself, until you remember your real name?"

The girl thought for a moment. She started to say something and stopped. Then, with a pained expression, said quietly "I don't know."

Professor Weasley thought for a moment, then smiled. "How about Lily."

Lily smiled. "Lily." She nodded.

"Now, I think you should continue to rest today because I think you will have a very exciting day tomorrow. You will need to be rested up for it." Lily smiled. "I will go and find some people to help you with that. I will be back to check on you a few times today." Professor Weasley got up and left.

**Johnny**

Johnny, Jamison, Amanda, and Geary had just come into the infirmary when Professor Weasley came out of Nurse Mason's office.

"Hello. Just in time," Professor Weasley said with a smile.

"Really? Can we see her?" Johnny asked with obvious excitement.

"Yes, but I think it is important that you let her rest, so please let her stay in bed today. I imagine she will be ready to see the castle tomorrow." The group nodded, although a bit reluctantly. "She still does not remember her name, or anything else, but it will likely come back to her eventually. Do not pressure her or try to prompt her memories. They will come on their own - _if_ you don't push. In the mean time, we have given her the name of Lily."

"Oh, that's wonderful, Professor." Amanda said.

"Also, please pretend the subject of magic does not exist for the present; I want to introduce it carefully. Oh, I almost forgot. We found a translation spell."

"Yes!" the four intoned together and almost jumped.

"It's actually a set of 5 spells linked together. The first 2 spells translate from languages that have been completely forgotten except for the spell, into a very ancient language and then 3 more to get to modern English. It is not always a very accurate process, so please speak simply. And don't wear her out!" The Professor smiled. "And don't forget to go to _your_ classes today." She headed for the infirmary doors.

"Thank you very much, Professor," Johnny said. He started moving toward the private room but it soon turned into a shuffling run as they all practically ran into Nurse Mason's office, not able to be very quiet about it, and began peaking their heads around the door frame into the room, big smiles on their faces.

Lily had a big smile on her face and pointing in turn. "Johnny, Amanda, Jamison, Geary."

"Yes, very good. That's better than I can usually do this early in the morning," Johnny said with a smirk and they all came into the room. "How are you today?"

"I am very tired and Professor Weasley said I should stay resting. Something about tomorrow is a big day?" She looked curiously at them.

"Yes, we can take you on a tour of the school. And introduce you to everyone. And get more food! And - probably even go outside!" Amanda said escalating toward excitement.

"That would be very nice, thank you," Lily said. "Is it really morning? I am lost for time."

"Yes, and so are we. It's time for class already. We just got here and now we have to leave," Amanda said with a big pout. The three boys groaned.

"Ok, but we'll be back at lunchtime." Johnny looked hopeful.

"That would be nice, thank you." Lily looked good with a contented smile.

"See you in a bit," Geary said as they all trouped out the door.

**Professor Weasley**

It was almost lunch time when Professor Weasley got back to the infirmary to see Lily. She peeked into the private room and saw Lily sleeping lightly, moving occasionally. She knocked on the door frame. Lily woke up a bit, fumbled with the covers, and still managed to look a bit cross-eyed. Then she saw Professor Weasley and determined to wake up. She sat up in the bed and rubbed her eyes to get them to open. The Professor walked in and said "Hello, Lily. How are you? About ready for some lunch?"

"Lunch is nice." Lily's voice was still covered in cruft from so much sleeping. She cleared her throat a bit and said "Could I have some water?"

"Yes, dear, let me get you some." Professor Weasley walked out to the office, conjured up a glass full, and came back in and gave it to Lily who drank most of it in one go. Lily gasped a few times after drinking so fast. Professor Weasley asked very slowly, "Lily, would you be surprised if I said I could do magic?"

"I guess it depends on what kind of magic."

"How about creating a glass of water out of thin air?"

"No, why?"

"Because this is a school that teaches magic and I didn't want you to be completely surprised."

"Really? That sounds very nice. Can I learn here too?"

"Yes, I was hoping you'd ask. Do you know how old you are?"

Lily thought for a while, but said "no, I don't have any idea." She looked rather dejected and confused by not knowing something so basic.

"Do you know if you can do any magic?"

Again Lily thought for a bit, and said "I don't know. I don't remember doing any. But I still don't remember anything." Her tone fell.

"Actually, you are quite magical. Remember those toy chairs I showed you?" Lily nodded. "Those had some magic on them to hide them from you and you were able to see right through that magic."

"What about that bit of wood next to the little chairs? What was that?" Lily looked afraid.

The Professor thought for a minute, then said carefully, "that was a piece of wood from where we found you. It evidently has some magical residue on it that only you can sense, because I can't sense any magic on it."

Lily looked shocked and scared at the same time. "Where you found me? How did I get here?" From her expression it was obvious that questions were swirling around in her.

This was one subject Professor Weasley was hoping to avoid for a while. Getting too deep into this now could cause her pain before she is ready to handle it. "We found you in the Main Hall of the school. You don't remember that do you?"

"No, I don't."

"You don't remember that incident, and what came before, because of some trauma; that time is too painful for you to remember right now so a part of you decided to hide those memories for now. You will remember eventually, but we don't want to push you into remembering before you are ready. That could be even more painful. We want to give you time to heal, so I recommend that you not worry about it right now. The memories will come back on their own. But you must be prepared that if you go back to the Main Hall you will likely feel something there."

Lily looked ready to cry, her faced turned away. Then she looked up into the Professor's eyes, with a sad smile. She reached out and hugged Professor Weasley tightly. "Thank you so much, Professor Weasley. I am so glad I'm here."

"We are too, dear. I think we should find you some clothes, now. You will have some lunch here soon, and guests coming to see you. And I think tomorrow you could be ready to see the school."

Lily's excitement lit up the room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**A Day For Today**

Johnny got to the infirmary first, Saturday morning, but it was still late at just after 10:00. Lily seemed to be alone in the infirmary, Nurse Mason having stepped out. Johnny approached the open door to Lily's room and peeked inside. She was asleep, buried under pillows and blankets so you barely knew she was there. "Good Morning!"

The pile flinched and rose up to a sitting position as all the pillows and blankets slid down. A bleary head looked around and spotted Johnny. A hand appeared from under a pillow to rub sight back into barely-open eyes, another hand rose up to point and a scratchy voice was heard "Johnny. You are very early."

A giant smile broke out on his face. "I'm here to help you."

"Ha! Said the spider to the fly."

"Ha ha! That was good. I'll remember that one. Where did that come from?"

She looked quizzical for a moment. "I don't know. It just popped out. Way too early in the morning for that much thinking."

"Would you like some breakfast, while we wait for the others?"

"Oh, you're bound and determined to make me think aren't you." Despite her best efforts, she thought for a moment. "How about you go get some food, while I get dressed."

"Deal. Back in a flash." He was gone out the door.

"No need to hurry!" She yelled after him.

By the time Johnny got back with a huge tray of food, enough for all of them, Amanda and Jamison were there waiting by the closed door to her room. "Johnny, excellent idea," Nurse Mason said as she picked up a roll from the tray.

"I heartily agree," said Geary as he walked in and grabbed another roll.

"Ok, everyone, just leave some for Lily." Johnny said with mock tiredness and then a smile.

The door opened and Lily stepped out, "Oh, yes. Please do." She moved closer.

"But wait - are you sure you're up for this? This is really good food, can you handle it?" Johnny said, while getting a glare.

Lily said wagging her finger with an overly-serious look. "Do not come between a woman and her food, you will lose."

Johnny relented and moved quickly out of the way, hands in the air. "That's the attitude, Lily," Nurse Mason said, pointing at her with a bit of her roll. "I shall leave you in charge of these rascals. Keep them out of trouble and bring them back before nightfall." She got up to leave the office amongst the giggles.

Lily looked surprised and hopeful. "Wait, can I go out?"

Nurse Mason turned with a smile. "Yes, you can. Just stay within the grounds, do not go anywhere alone for the time being, and don't forget to eat."

"Thank you so much, Nurse Mason." Lily gave her a big hug.

"You're very welcome, Lily. Have fun." She left for her other duties.

"So, where should we go first?" Geary asked.

"That tray, right over there." Lily pointed as she moved in to attack.

Within the hour the tray was empty and they were heading out of the office into the infirmary. "Wow, this is big. How many students do you have here? Or do they just get injured a lot?" Lily asked with a concerned look.

"Oh, about 600 students I think?" Amanda said.

"And it can get a bit full during Quidditch season." Geary said.

"Quidditch? What's that?" Lily said.

"A sport involving flying brooms. It's very fun." Geary was a big fan.

"Ah, that explains a lot." Lily was looking at him dubiously.

"What, no one has died in a school game for - like centuries!" Geary was trying to be encouraging but falling a bit short.

"Uh hu. Not since they stationed a medical crew at all the games, I bet?" Lily teased gently.

"You should try playing it. It's the best adrenalin money can buy!" Geary was beaming.

"Wait, where _are_ we going?" Lily looked confused.

"First stop I thought would be the Astronomy Tower, for the view. Then the main staircases down to the dungeons, then the Great Hall, and finally the grounds. Sounds good?" Johnny hoped that path would involve the least walking.

Lily was quite happy with the moving paintings on the walls. And, of course, the view from the Astronomy Tower was unbelievable, especially since it was a gorgeous day outside. Small puffy clouds in a deep blue sky with a view of the lake and hills. Lily couldn't believe how big the castle was. She loved the moving staircases. As they made their way down into the dungeons she seemed to get a little quieter and her eyes got larger. As they moved along a corridor on their way to the Slytherin common room, Lily's nerves were starting to become obvious. She was walking a little ahead of the group as if in a hurry. "Hey Lily. Are you OK?" Amanda asked.

Lily turned around, walking backwards, and said "Yea, fine -". She bumped into a suit of armor, "Oh -", then it moved and started to say something. She screamed, spun around sweeping her elbow into the suits gloves knocking the hilt of the sword free. She grabbed the sword handle, which was standing on it's point, and continued to spin around again slamming the sword into the suit slicing it in half. She jumped back in a ready position as the suit crashed to the ground, bits bouncing along the hallway.

The group froze in shock. Johnny reacted first. "Lily! Are you OK?" The hard predatory look on her face softened into one of fear. She dropped the sword like it was hot and let out a short scream, falling back half-leaning against the wall. Her hands came up hiding her face as she started to sob. Johnny caught her in a hug before she could fall to the ground. "It's OK, it was just an empty suit of armor. It's OK, you are safe here." It took a minute and she was still breathing hard but her sobs had started to subside.

"I'm sorry," she said, over and over. "Just a nightmare." Geary and Jamison were examining the suit pieces. After a minute or two, her breathing calming down, she looked at the suit, "it was just an empty suit? Oh, now look what I've done, I've broken it."

"Oh, no worries, that's double-easy to fix." Geary said. "But I gotta say, that was one cool move with that sword. Where'd you learn how to do that?"

"I don't know." Her voice started to take another dive into hysteria as her face crumpled, "I don't want to know. I don't want to do that any more. I... can't." She started sobbing again. Geary looked horrible.

"It's OK, Lily, we won't do that any more." Johnny was just holding her as they slid down the wall to the floor.

Amanda put her hand on Geary's shoulder. "Don't worry, Geary. I was about to say the same thing. We didn't know." He nodded, his face tight.

Jamison said softly, "let's head up stairs and get some air."

"Yes, let's. Excellent idea." Johnny said. "Come Lily, let's go find some sunshine." He started helping her to stand and moving back up the hallway. She was beginning to calm down.

By the time they got up one level she was starting to feel ashamed and embarrassed of her outburst. "I'm sorry. I was just surprised and I guess I don't do well in underground spaces."

"That's quite all right, Lily, we understand. We're just sorry that startled you so." Amanda said.

"Yes, we have some sunshine just up ahead." Johnny said as they rounded the corner into the Main Hall. Lily gasped and froze, her face blank and eyes flinching again and again as if someone was slapping her. "Lily, what - " She let out a wail and started to stumble backward as Johnny and Amanda caught her. They tried to direct her back down the hall but as she turned her legs collapsed and she ended up being let down to the floor unconscious. "Oh God! We forgot about the Main Hall!"

"She still breathing?" Geary asked.

"Yes, she just fainted, I think." Amanda was the calmest one there.

"Oh dear. What happened?" Professor Trillaby came rushing over.

"She fainted when she saw the Main Hall, Professor. Can you call Professor Weasley?" Amanda said.

"Yes." Professor Trillaby touched the coin pinned to his robes, "Professor Weasley, Lily has collapsed in the Main Hall."

"I'll be right there." Professor Weasley's voice came out of the coin. Professor Trillaby levitated Lily so she could be moved easily. Within seconds Professor Weasley came out of the Great Hall and approached them. "How is she?"

"She seems to have fainted. She seems fine otherwise." Professor Trillaby said.

"We were going to take her outside for some sunshine. She had quite a scare down in the dungeons." Jamison said.

"What kind of scare?" Professor Weasley asked.

Johnny was still a bit shaken up. "She was a little on edge, I think from being down in the dungeons, and she backed into a suit of armor, which was OK, until it moved and started to say something." Johnny reluctantly added, "Then she kinda freaked out."

"Just – freaked out?" Professor Weasley prompted.

"She ripped the sword away from it and cut the suit in half." Geary said dryly. "It was a very cool move. But then she broke down sobbing, saying she couldn't do that any more. Then on the way outside, we turned the corner into the Main Hall and she freaked again. In a different way."

"Well, that must have been hard." After a moments consideration, Professor Weasley suggested "how about we take her outside for that sunshine you were after. But let's go around the Main Hall this time."

"Yes, thank you. I think we all could use it." Johnny said tiredly. They began moving Lily's floating form down the hall and out a different door to the grounds. They found a nice spot in the sun, with a gentle breeze breathing through the trees. They lowered Lily down onto the grass and Geary, Jamison, Johnny, and Amanda flopped down around her.

Professor Weasley walked around to stand in front of the group. "Johnny, here is a coin like Professor Trillaby has. Just touch it and you can talk to me. Please don't let her be alone if you are out with her. So whoever is with her should have that coin. OK?"

"Yes, Professor."

"Call me when she wakes up, alright?" Everyone nodded. Professor Weasley studied Lily for a moment, then walked back inside.

"Wow. That was a major disaster. Two even!" Johnny was depressed.

"Oh, man. Avoiding the Main Hall forever is not going to be easy." Jamison said sadly.

"Well, I don't think it will be that bad," Amanda said. "I think Professor Weasley mentioned that this may happen. She talked about Lily's memories coming back on their own. So, all it took was a trigger or two."

"Yeah, two in one day, the _first_ day." Geary still looked like he felt bad.

"My grandfather had problems like this." Amanda said. "Post Traumatic Stress, it's called, and it can be very messy and take quite a while to get over. So we shouldn't assume we did something wrong because it doesn't go away tomorrow."

"How did your grandfather get that?" Johnny asked.

"The war with Voldemort. He was an Auror."

"Wow." Jamison mumbled. The warm sun, the fresh air, the soft grass, within moments Amanda was the last to fall asleep.

**Johnny**

Johnny finally woke up enough to remember where he was. The sunshine and the light breeze were glorious. But his stomach was not as happy. And persistent. He sat up and looked around. Everyone was still here, and asleep. He really hated to wake them all, but his stomach was not patient. Then he got an idea, jumped up as well as he could, and ran off to get food and bring it back.

Everyone was still asleep when he got back with a large basket of food. He set it down, pulled out a nice warm roll and started to wave it under Lily's nose. It took a few seconds but then her breathing went from shallow and steady to a deep inhale and contented sound. Then her stomach rumbled, her eyes popped open, she said "that's what I smell! Johnny, you are on dangerous ground, waving that bit of food around like that."

"Yes, but it is sooo effective." Johnny was enjoying himself a little too much. Everyone else started stirring with the conversation, and then discovered the food. Johnny touched the coin "Professor Weasley, Lily is awake."

"I'll be there in a minute, Johnny."

"Whoa, where'd this come from?" Geary didn't wait for an answer before he started in.

Amanda sat up and looked at the food, then at Lily. "How are you doing, Lily?"

"Much better with all this food. Johnny was very nice to get it all for us."

"Even after the dungeon?" Amanda asked.

"The what? Oh!" she turned her head away with a pained look. "I'd forgotten about that. I'm very sorry. It just popped out of me."

"That's quite all right, Lily. We understand and it's not a problem." Amanda said soothingly. "Do you remember the Main Hall?"

"Main Hall? Have we been there yet?" Lily asked.

"That's ok, Lily. We'll go there another time." Johnny tried to cover up the holes in the story.

"Wait, what happened? In the Main Hall?" She looked around frightened. "What happened in the Main Hall?"

"It was nothing, Lily." Johnny was trying to keep her calm but it obviously wasn't working.

"No! It's not alright." Lily was on the verge of crying. "This is scaring me. I have violent outbursts that just pop out of me and huge blank spots in my memory. I might hurt someone - and not even remember!" Her hand came up to her mouth as tears started down her face.

The students all looked sad and concerned. "You fainted is all, Lily." Amanda was very gentle.

"Fainted?" She dropped her head in her hands. "I don't remember anything. I don't know what's happening. I don't feel like I can trust myself. I have no idea who I am." she quietly dissolved into sobs. No one knew what to say.

In a few minutes, Professor Weasley walked up. "Lily, dear. Come, let me help. Let's go inside and have a talk, shall we? All of you, come along and we'll sort this out. And bring the food, right? We'll need it." Lily was being supported by Professor Weasley as they walked back toward the castle, and the rest of the students packed up the food and came after.

When they got to the Professor's office they all found seats near the fireplace with a low table in front of all the chairs to place the basket. Everyone started picking at the food. Professor Weasley started. "Well, Lily, I want you to know that everything you are feeling and going through is _normal_ for someone who has been through what you have. It is very hard, because you have lost something that forms the very basis for our self-concept, your memories. And before they have come back to you, you will feel confused and scared. But know this to be true. Just because you have lost your memories, that does not change who you are. That comes through regardless. So I don't need to know your history to know that you are a kind, caring, considerate person who would not hurt anyone without just cause. So right now, you need to trust your feelings while you are waiting for your memories to come back."

"But I feel like I'm losing my grip on reality. I don't remember what happened in the Main Hall a few hours ago."

"Yes, I understand that is troubling. For that, you need to trust us to help you."

"Yes, Professor. I'll try." Lily was hesitant.

"Good," Professor Weasley continued. "In the mean time, I have been talking to the Ministry of Magic about your situation. I have applied for, and have been granted, official status as your guardian, until something else comes up."

"My guardian?" Lily was a little confused still.

"Basically, for the time being, if you are willing, we get to be Mother and Daughter."

"Oh..." Lily looked surprised and happy, but at a complete loss for words.

"And that means that for now, your name is Lily Weasley. Would that be alright with you?"

"Oh, yes! Yes, that would be wonderful. Thank you so much."

"I thought that might give you a little stability during this very difficult time. Oh! Wait until I tell my grandchildren, they'll be so excited!"

"Mom!" Lily whinged extravagantly and rolled her teary eyes, then burst into a huge smile as everyone laughed.

"Now there's a sound I haven't heard in a long time. So, the next issue is to start training you in our style of magic. Would you like that?"

"Yes, definitely." Lily said enthusiastically.

"Have you had the House system explained to you, Lily?"

"Yes, I think I understand it."

"Well, if you're ready, we can let the Sorting Hat pick your house."

"Oh, my. I guess so." Lily said with trepidation.

Professor Weasley walked over and picked up the Sorting Hat and said, "This hat has been charmed to analyze your talents and select the right house who will help you reach your greatest potential. Let's see what it says."

The hat dropped over her head clear down to her nose and started mumbling. "Oh ... oh, a - oh my. This is most perplexing. I'll have to say ... NONE! No House!"

"Now, that won't work. Sorting Hat, you must say a house." Professor Weasley looked concerned.

"Well, about the only thing to do is ... A NEW HOUSE! Start a new house!" The hat said. Everyone either gasped or laughed.

"Create a new house? I can't do that, you have to pick a house."

"Oh, this is most difficult. Ridiculous wizards. Fine! ... ALL HOUSES! She is in EVERY HOUSE!"

"Well." Professor Weasley said. "We can run with that." The hat was taken off and put back on the shelf. "I'll talk to you later." She pointed her finger accusingly at the hat.

"That is pretty amazing." Johnny said. "At least we don't have to fight over her."

"I definitely like that." Lily said with relief.

"I think we will call you our Visiting Student from abroad." Professor Weasley said. "And this afternoon we should make a quick trip to Diagon Alley for a wand. Everything else we can find here, once we figure out what you need. And, I think we will need to find you a private room. How does that sound?"

"I think I'm dizzy already." Lily joked.

"Yes, I imagine. But, always run towards problems; never run away from them." Professor Weasley said absent mindedly. "By the way, Lily. I got a chance to drop by that suit of armor that scared you earlier."

"Oh?" She cringed in fear.

"Yes, _very_ impressive dear. I dare say you have a lot you could teach us here."

"Ah - OK. I guess." Lily was still a bit confused.

"Well, shall we go get you a wand Lily?" Professor Weasley stood up and looked at Lily with a big smile.

"Will it hurt?" Lily asked meekly. Everyone laughed.

"No. But it may be surprising. Come dear, let's discover the wonders of Diagon Alley." She held out her arm and Lily took it. "Maybe we'll stop at Fortescues?"

"What's Fortesque's?" Lily looked rather dubious.

"Ooh! It's an Ice Cream shop. Could you bring back something for me?" Johnny said excitedly.

"Ice Cream? I can guarantee it wouldn't survive the trip back." Lily said with big grin.

**Professor Weasley**

As they walked through the halls Professor Weasley gave Lily a running commentary on everything. They went around the back side of the Great Hall and peaked in to see it. "This is where we have meals and other large functions."

"Wow! This is absolutely amazing!"

"You should try to use this entrance until you feel better. Through the other door is the Main Hall, where you had problems. We'll try that again one day, but no need to rush." As they moved out the side door, down the grounds toward Hogsmead they talked a lot about the history of Hogwarts, which inevitably lead to Professor Weasley's involvement in the schools more recent past.

"There was a war here? At the school?" Lily was amazed.

"Yes, a very nasty one, as civil wars so often are. Particularly bad, given who some of the combatants were; evil sociopathic wizards who weren't satisfied with just winning, they wanted to destroy everything and kill everyone."

"And you were involved in it?" Lily was shocked.

"Yes, my entire seven years here as a student, in one way or another. It's still hard to think about all those people who didn't survive the war."

"Seven years? Did you have to fight?"

"Yes. I was about the same age as you are. My friends and I were at the very center of it. We helped end the war."

"Wow. Was that hard?"

"Yes. At the time and for many years after. But the war did end eventually, and life went back to something like normal, for a lot of people. It was incredibly difficult for me and those who were very closely involved. It's not something you really get over, you just adapt to a new level of normal."

"So you've been at this school for a long time."

"Oh, 80-some years or so. As a student, a professor, and now as Headmistress."

"Wow. 80 years. How did you get involved? Did you volunteer?"

"You could say that I volunteered only if you consider that I did not run away from it. I could have run away, but I didn't. In reality it started around me and I got caught up in it. I couldn't abandon my friends, my family, my people. They did not start that war, they were attacked and they were defending themselves. But even more than that, the other side was murdering people for some bizarre measure of racial purity. But that was only their stated goal, which wasn't actually even true. They were doing this purely to exercise power over other people."

"Did you know people who died?"

"Yes, a lot of them. So much was lost. The loss was crushing. We are a surprisingly small community, so to lose a few is a huge impact. To lose so many was devastating. It took the community a very long time to recover, too. In many cases, friends and family betrayed each other. Which further damaged the community, because it was hard to forget the betrayals. Well, here we are."

"We are? Just outside the gates?"

"Yes, this is as far as we need to actually walk. We needed to get outside the castle grounds. Now we can travel a bit easier, we can apparate. Which means we can pop from here to there."

"Is is difficult?"

"It's a bit disorienting and it's only difficult if you're actually doing the apparating. If your just riding along, it's quite easy. First let's try it just down the road a bit. Ready?" Professor Weasley wrapped her arm around Lily's shoulders and apparated about 10 feet down the road.

"Ooops. I don't think that worked." Lily grinned a little sheepishly. She was standing about 10 feet away from professor Weasley.

"Goodness, dear. That didn't work. That is amazing. What did you feel?"

"Hhm - it was like I felt a brush of something when you disappeared, but that was all."

Professor Weasley walked back over to Lily. "Ok, maybe you need to participate a bit more in this process. It seems that our style of magic does not affect you the same as others. That's the same as we saw with the set of toy chairs." Lily nodded. "Let's try this again, this time you try to feel what I'm doing and go along with it. Does that make sense? I'll only go a few feet down the road so we can try this out a few times. Ready?". Lilly nodded again.

Professor Weasley started building up the apparation spell slowly and tried to feel Lily participating. Eventually she couldn't postpone it any more and just had to apparate. And there was Lily, still in her arms. "Excellent! How was that?"

"That was weird. My stomach felt like it was pulled around."

"Yes, it does at that. Shall we try it for distance now?"

"OK, but how much distance?" Lily asked a little nervously.

"About 400 miles. Would you like to try something shorter first?"

"Well, do you have some way to find me if I fell off along the way?"

The Professor laughed. "That is a wonderful word picture. And yes, I do."

"OK, let's see what happens."

"Ready?" The Professor wrapped her arm around Lily and POP, they were gone from Hogsmead.

In Diagon Alley, Lily and the Professor popped back into existence together. "Wow, that was fun - whoa! Look at this place." Lily said.

"Yes, isn't it nice? You'd never know we were in the middle of another city of 6 million people, would you?" Lily turned all the way around wide-eyed. "Shall we take a stroll?" They moved off down the lane. After a good bit they finally came to Ollivander's. "Here we are. Let's see what he makes of your magic, shall we?"

"What do you think will happen?"

"I have no idea dear. This should be interesting." They walked in the door and stood for a moment waiting.

"Professor Weasley! This is a surprise. And who do you have with you?" Ollivander even looked surprised.

"That you are surprised is a surprise in deed, Mr. Ollivander. This is a guest of ours at Hogwarts, an exchange student of sorts. Unfortunately, due to her method of travel, it has temporarily left her without a memory of her name, so in the mean time she is going by Lily Weasley. And she needs a wand."

Mr. Ollivander was looking so intently at Lily that he reminded her of a cat stalking a bird. The image was made worse by the way he moved toward her to measure her. He tilted his head from side to side.

He spoke slowly and smoothly, drawing out his words. "To the untrained eye, you look like a basic muggle, but you aren't, are you. You will be one of my greatest challenges. Your magic is – so completely different." He turned around and slowly looked over the shelves, rather wide-eyed. Then he looked back at Lily. "Just for fun, let's try this one." He went to one of the front shelves and picked a box seemingly at random and gave her the wand. "Give it a wave." She picked it up and raised it up ready to wave. "WAIT!" he yelled with panic and desperately grabbed for her hand to stop it from waving. "Let's not try that one," he said quietly and put the wand back in it's box. "On second thought, I would advise you never to touch any normal wizard wand; it could be hazardous." He started wandering around the shop mumbling, not really looking at anything, evidently just thinking. Eventually he came back with his face within an inch of Lily's and his eyes intently bugged out staring at her. It was rather disconcerting. "I'm not sure I will have what you really need. I think I can give you something, but I think you need something more than what I can give."

"Really Mr. Ollivander? That is quite unusual." Professor Weasley was quite concerned.

"I have never, in my life, been so confounded. This is quite a memorable experience. Let me try one thing." He wandered away for a minute and came back with what looked to be a metal rod. "Platinum, six inches, with a diamond on the end. I think that will be safe. Sort of a practice wand, you might say. Give it a wave, will you?"

Lily picked it up and waved it and a brilliant white light came out of the diamond like a bright torch.

"That, I think, will do as a start. Now, for the rest. Come with me." He took both of their hands and led them out of his shop and down the street.

"Where are we going Mr Ollivander?" Professor Weasley asked when Ollivander hadn't remembered to mention it.

"To the Borgin & Burkes bookshop in Knockturn Alley. They have some artifacts there that I think may be important to you. I noticed these items quite a few years ago. No one knows what they are, just that they seem to be magical. But when you came in the shop, Lily, you reminded me of them."

Mr Ollivander lead the way into the bookshop of questionable reputation in Knockturn Alley. The man behind the counter was quite surprised. "Hello Mr Ollivander. I'm surprised to see you. And you too, Professor Weasley!" They were obviously _quite_ unexpected.

"Good morning to you, Mr Burkes. Yes, this is _definitely_ a day to remember. I think, if I am correct, that we may solve a very old mystery concerning these items." He lead the way over to a display in a glass case with a number of items in it. A somewhat crudely designed large metal bracelet with some large translucent pale yellow stones set in it, what looked like a 10 inch metal scepter with another matching large stone on the end, and a similarly designed ring.

Lily came up to the case and gasped. "Those – they - look familiar, somehow."

"You recognize them?" Mr. Burkes was astonished.

"Can you describe your reactions, Lily?" Professor Weasley asked.

"They are thrilling for me to see. But they also scare me. Somehow, they are very important. I don't know why." Lily said slowly.

"Can you tell us their history, Mr. Burkes?" Professor Weasley asked.

"These items have been in this case since before I was born. When I was younger they intrigued me and I looked into their history. As far as I could tell, my family acquired them maybe 8 or 10 generations ago, back in the 1600's. At that time my family was on the continent. The items seem to be several thousand years old. We could never find a use for them, other than some crude decoration."

Professor Weasley leaned over and looked Lily directly in the eyes. "How do you feel about this? Do you want to look further at these items or is this too upsetting for you?"

"They do scare me, but I feel that they are very important somehow. I do not want to touch them yet. I'm not ready for that, but I don't want to leave them here. I want to take them with me." Lily was hesitant, but obviously felt strongly about them.

"What is the price for them, Mr Burkes?" Professor Weasley asked.

"Five Galleons for the lot. I haven't changed the price in years - well, it used to be eight. My only request is that you let me know what you find out about them?"

"Yes, Mr. Burkes. I will." Professor Weasley said.

"That's good enough for me. I'll get a box for them."

Soon they said their thankyou's and goodby's to Mr. Burkes and Mr Ollivander. Lily and the Professor decided to make a quick stop at the ice cream shop. "I don't know how long it's been since I've had ice cream, Professor."

"Really?" Professor Weasley gave her a sly look matched with an incredulous sound.

"Ha! Yes, I guess so, seeing as how I can't remember anything. Of course I can't remember how long it's been!"

"Memory is a very funny thing, isn't it?"

"Yes, I guess you're right. Though I'm starting to get rather tired of not remembering anything."

"That is a good sign, actually. Shall we go home?"

"Yes, let's." They stood holding their ice creams, Lily was wrapped by Professor Weasley's arm, and POP. They were back in front of the Hogwarts gates.

As they walked up the path toward the castle Lily asked, "Professor, do you know what it is about my magic that is so unusual?"

"Very many things, Lily. For one, did you know that the translation spell has worn off completely several days ago?"

"Worn off? You mean it's not working? Then how do I understand you?"

"That is a very good question. I watched as it wore down but your language didn't deteriorate so I just let it go to see what happened. You have even lost any accent. You seem to have assimilated the language from the combinations of spells. That is not normally possible. Though very convenient, I must say."

"Ok - how else?" Lily looked concerned but seemed to be trying to not let it show.

"Well, not only can I not sense your magic, you seem not to be affected by mine or any other style of magic that I know of. I have never seen that before. You are definitely magical, but your abilities seem to have gone along with your memories. Which suggests that if your memories come back so will your abilities."

"Hmmm." Lily sunk deep into thought.

As they got close to the castle, Professor Weasley said, "I think we should start you with some tutoring to see where we should concentrate our efforts. Then, at some point you will be able to enter normal classes with everyone else. How does that sound to you?"

"Who would I start tutoring with?" Lily looked nervous.

"I thought you would start with me."

"Yes! Thank you, thank you!" Lily looked like she was ready to explode.

"Currently, I'm the only one with enough spare time to handle it. And I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Lily gave her a big hug.

"Oh, by the way, should we go find you a room?"

"I thought I would just stay with Amanda, or someone." Lily said nervously.

"Yes, well, the problem is that if you stay with any of the students you will be in their house. While the Sorting Hat has placed you in all houses, to be fair we can't choose one. So that suggests that you should have your own room. Is that alright with you?"

"To be very honest, I'm a little nervous of being alone."

"Well, because the Sorting Hat put you in every house, you can go into every house common room up until curfew. I can also arrange for a secret passage between your room and mine. How would that be?"

"Really? You can? – How?"

"Ummm, magic?" the Professor raised her eyebrows.

"Ha ha, yes, I guess so. Sometimes I'm only half awake."

Professor Weasley put her arm around Lily. "Dear, you _astound_ me in your adaptability, your courage, your strength. Three days ago you were in a coma, no language skills, no memories, and no magic. Now look at you. Wide awake, Perfect language, starting on magic, and I bet memories will be soon to follow."

"Yes, but do I want memories? Things are very nice right now. With those memories might come a lot of ... weight."

"There could be a lot of good things in those memories, too."

"Somehow I'm not so sure."

"We'll see what we see. And here we are. Your new rooms."

"Um, I don't see a door."

"Just say 'Puddlefoot' to this painting..." it started to open. "And here you are."

"Whoa, that's cool." She walked into the main room. "Look! It's a suite of rooms. A bath! My own bath! This is just unbelievable!"

"Kinda' thought you might like it. This is as if you had your own common room."

"Oh, it's so spacious. Chairs, a fireplace, a window - look at the view! It's beautiful!"

"I'm so glad you like it. Shall we go find your adoring followers?"

"My - what?" Lily looked quite perplexed.

"Johnny, Jamison, Amanda, and Geary?"

"Oh, yes! They are so nice to me. I don't know what I'd do without them." Lily looked on the verge of crying.

Professor Weasley touched the coin on her lapel and said, "Johnny, would you round up your crew and report to the Puddlemere room, 3rd floor, 2nd hall?"

**Johnny**

Johnny responded a second later, "On our way."

Geary started packing his books, "OK, kiddies, let's move it." They all jumped up from their library table faster than they ever have for class.

Within a few minutes they found the painting and knocked. "Come in," Professor Weasley said from inside. The door swung open and they all came trooping in.

"Wow, look at this! I didn't know these rooms existed. Very cool." Johnny highly approved.

Amanda said, "Yes, who's are these?"

"These are Lily's rooms. Given that she is in all houses, she can't stay in only one house, so she needs her own rooms."

"Isn't it amazing? I can't believe it." Lily flopped down on the couch. Everyone but the Professor soon followed.

"I'll let you get settled in and I'll be back before curfew to check on you again. Alright?"

"Yes, thank you Professor." Lily got up and gave the Professor a long almost-tearful hug.

"You're welcome, dear." Professor Weasley left.

"So how was Diagon Alley?" Geary asked.

"Yes, tell us what happened." Johnny perked up.

"Wow. So much happened." She thought for a moment. "We started out just walking to the gates of Hogwarts and we talked about the history of Hogwarts. But the interesting part was Professor Weasley telling stories about her involvement in the war that happened right here at Hogwarts."

"Oh, yes. You haven't read the books about that yet, have you." Jamison said.

"No. I was so surprised. Then we tried to apparate, but it didn't work."

"Didn't work? What's this?" Johnny was quite confused.

"The Professor wanted to test how well it worked with me, so she put her arm around me and tried to apparate 10 feet down the road. Well, she moved and I didn't."

"Whoa, that doesn't make sense." Geary said.

"Yes, well, then she said I needed to try and feel her magic build and to follow it and ... sort of, go with it. And it worked."

"Who ever thought going to Diagon Alley could be such an adventure." Amanda said.

"Diagon Alley! Oh, wow. That was so much fun. All those shops and things. It was very cool. Then came Mr Ollivander."

"Isn't he the creepiest? I _love_ going to his shop." Amanda said.

"Oooh, wow. Evidently I freaked him out."

"Wait, you freaked _him_ out? Is that possible?" Jamison said

"He just kept saying that I was his biggest challenge ever and he wouldn't let me try any of his wands. He said it wouldn't be safe - and that I should never use anyone else's wand, that it could be dangerous. I felt like some sort of exotic animal."

"What? He didn't give you a wand?" Geary about lost it.

"No, - well - he gave me this." Lily held up the platinum rod with the diamond on the end. "He said it was like a starter-wand or a wand with training wheels. He said I probably couldn't hurt anyone with it. I felt a bit like a 3 year old."

"What did it do when you waved it?" Johnny asked.

"It shot this brilliant white light out of the diamond. Is that normal?"

"Normal!? You got light out of a metal rod!? ... I can't believe it. No one can get anything out of a metal rod, only real wands can do that."

"Oh. Different again." Lily was looking very disappointed.

"No, wait, you don't understand. That is so cool! You have talents none of us can come close to. Can you wave it for us?" Johnny was bug-eyed.

"Ok, if you think it will be interesting." Lily picked it up and gave it a wave. A bolt of lightning struck from the diamond to the hearth, taking a chunk out of it. The thunderclap was deafening. All the chairs fell over as everyone jumped back. Lily fell over, crawled away and ended up curled up in a ball shivering with a blank shocked look on her face. A klaxon went off, evidently an alarm of some sort, continuing to make noise. Everyone else was sprawled out on the floor in various places around the room. Professor Weasley came running into the room from Lily's bedroom. "What happened? Johnny!" She ran over to him and helped him to sit up. He started holding his head. He had a cut on the side of his head where a bit of stonework hit him. His hands were shaking. She moved to Amanda, who was just starting to roll over and sit up, blinking rapidly. "Are you alright?" Amanda nodded slowly. She moved next to Jamison, who was farthest from either door. He was about the same condition as Amanda. The door opened and Nurse Mason came in and looked around. She moved to Geary who was nearest the front door. Professor Weasley asked "Jamison, where's Lily?" He look at her for a moment, confused, then pointed over to Lily curled up in the corner. Professor Weasley ran over, checked her over lightly, saw she was not badly injured, brought her into a hug and just held her. Professor Colton came in and started helping Nurse Mason. The alarm was shut off and one-by-one the students were helped up and taken to the infirmary.

Professor Weasley was quietly talking to Lily. "I'm so sorry, Lily. Everyone will be fine. You're fine." Again and again. After a few minutes Lily started to cry instead of just cringe and shiver. "Lily, let's stand up. Can you walk?"

"Yes, but I can't see very well." she mumbled. "Why? What did I do? I just waved that bit of metal - and it exploded! Why?" She started sobbing. Professor Weasley was helping her walk toward the infirmary. By the time they got to the infirmary Lily was walking more strongly. She wiped her face as she sat on a bed. Professor Weasley started checking her for injuries. "I don't understand. It didn't do that in Mr Ollivander's shop."

"I would guess that your magic is reacting to the magic of the castle and is making every action bigger. And none of us knew it would do that."

"I'm dangerous. I shouldn't be here."

"Everyone is dangerous, to themselves or others, until they learn how to control their magic. We'll start tutoring tomorrow morning."

After two hours everyone was doing much better. Eardrums were fixed, eyes could see again after the flash, the cuts and bruises were treated. Everyone gravitated to Johnny's bed because he was taking the longest with the cut on his head. Geary yawned, "I think I'm tired. It's been quite an evening."

"I'm so, so sorry, everyone. I don't know what happened." Lily looked very sad.

Everyone chuckled. Johnny reacted first. "That's quite all right, Lily. This kind of stuff happens when you hang out with magical people. We all have way more power than we know what to do with. Thank goodness we have good healing skills to match."

"I guess I better learn healing skills really quick." Lily mumbled.

"Yes, very interesting point, Johnny. There is an old saying, 'to whom much is given, much is required.' What does our magic oblige us to do?" Professor Weasley said.

Everyone thought for a while on that, until Johnny said, "I think the strong should take care of the weak."

"Spoken like a true Gryfindor. Why do you think that? Does that include those who have earned a lot through their hard work?"

"Mmm, sticky one, that." Geary said. "It seems to me the question is, what is the value of community. If someone has earned something, they should keep it. But at the same time, no one lives alone; they live as part of a community, people that rely on each other."

"Isn't that a fundamental question throughout history? What is the line between the individual and the group?" Amanda asked. "But that, I think, is only part of the question. The part that I find interesting is how you draw the line between 'strong' and 'weak'. Those are relative terms, so who gets to define them?"

"And how broadly defined are the categories. Within 'weak', do you include magical creatures, like werewolves?" Professor Weasley added.

"Yes, they were included after the Voldemort war." Jamison said.

"How about further down that scale, what about muggles?" Professor Weasley said.

"That's hard, that's almost like a different category." Geary said.

"But is it actually a separate category or does it only look like that because the magical community is so separated from muggles?" Professor Weasley

"Isn't that where the definition of community comes in? If we don't interact with them then we don't depend on them, therefore we are a different category." Amanda said.

"Are we basically human?"

"Yes." Amanda said.

"Are muggles human?"

"Yes." Johnny said.

"Do you want one set of humans deciding that another set of human's lives are worth less than yours? Because if anyone can decide one person's life is worth less than another's, then they can easily decide _your_ life is worth less than someone else's. It's a very slippery slope. Either everyone's life is equally valuable, or no one's life is valuable."

"Eww. No. That would not work." Amanda made a face.

"Ok, so who is on the upper end of the scale; in the 'strong' category?" Professor Weasley asked.

"Well, I think we are pretty much the top." Geary said.

"Are we? I think it depends on how you define 'strong'."

"But we have magic." Jamison said.

"Yes, and the muggles have technology and superior numbers."

"So they have more people than we do, how can that make that much of a difference?" Amanda asked.

"We have maybe half a million wizards spread out across the world and they have 7 billion muggles."

"Seven - !?" Johnny breath caught.

"Yes. If it came to a fight between muggles and wizards, who would win? I don't even want to think about it. Because we could easily lose! Let's just not go there! Ever!" Professor Weasley shook her head.

**Professor Weasley**

After they were all healed and walking toward the infirmary doors, Professor Weasley said, "Well, that managed to fill an evening."

"Can we do it again tomorrow?" Geary asked overly nicely.

"I'll try harder next time; how's that sound?" Lily joked.

"Ah - I've got an Arithmancy test tomorrow, can't help, sorry." Jamison said dryly.

"Unfortunately, we're coming up on curfew in a bit, so I think it's time to run along to your common rooms, now." Professor Weasley looked at them apologetically.

"OK, ok... " everyone said, with lots of whinging noises as they moved toward the infirmary doors and off to their common rooms.

Professor Weasley turned to Lily, "Are you ready?"

"Yes, please." Lily said tiredly as they started moving down the hall. "I'm beginning to question my decision to study magic."

"I understand the sentiment, but it actually won't help. You _must_ study magic to control your talents or you _will_ hurt someone."

Lily sighed heavily. "So how do I learn not to hurt people."

"That's easy. The first part is already done. You don't want to hurt people. The hard part is just developing control of your talents. And that's what we'll start tomorrow morning. We'll start with basics, but the faster you learn, the faster we'll go. We don't want to take too long on this, because your magic is _very_ powerful."

"How long do you think it will take?" Lily asked anxiously.

"I get the feeling it will not take that long. I'm guessing maybe 2 weeks and you could be ready to start some classes. How does that sound?"

"It sounds way too slow - but I guess it's not, really."

"We will be working pretty hard on it. All day long, if you can."

"Puddlefoot", Lily said to the painting and they went in.

"Now that we're here, let me show you that passage to my rooms in case you need it."

"Oh yes, thank you." Lily looked relieved.

"In your room," they walked into Lily's bedroom toward the wardrobe, "open this wardrobe, and it has a false back. You step through into a passage that leads directly to my rooms. That all right?"

"Wonderful. What about light?" Lily was peering into the dark passage.

"They come on when you enter the passage."

"Thank you so much Professor. I just feel so lost here, except for you and the others."

"You're very welcome dear. Good night." The Professor stepped into and through the wardrobe.

**Johnny**

As Johnny, Amanda, Jamison, and Geary left the infirmary after an exciting evening, Johnny was rather concerned. "So, who all was scared by that little display of magical power?"

"Oh, man! I couldn't do that if I tried, and Lily did it without even noticing," Jamison said.

"And she felt so bad about it. It's not like she knew what it was going to do, she'd never done anything near that big before." Amanda said.

"Hhhm. Or has she?" Johnny asked. "That explosion in the infirmary on the monster-day was not far off from that. We never did figure out where that explosion came from. Could she have done that? I'm thinking quite likely."

"That would truly be scary." Geary said.

"But I don't think it's deliberate. I think she just lacks control - and happens to be ridiculously powerful." Amanda said. They came to the central staircases, where they needed to go their separate ways, so they stopped for a minute.

"I agree. I guess all we can do is to keep an eye on her and be ready to help." Johnny said.

"Yes, let's." Amanda looked serious. Everyone agreed and went off to bed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**And It Begins Again...**

The charms classroom was quiet as everyone started in on their quiz. Johnny felt relatively prepared for it, given he'd actually had a chance to study for it this time. Lily was sitting at the same table next to him since Professor Weasley was gone for the day. It was such a joy for him to see her excited and learning about magic. She was learning voraciously this last week with Professor Weasley. He started in on the first question, when Lily jumped up, fell back against the table behind them sending her stool clattering down the row of tables. She stood up and turned, looking toward the back wall away from the door, with an angry far-away look on her face. Everyone was startled and looked at her. Then a klaxon started and everyone looked around. Professor Young jumped up and ran out of the room saying "Stay here! Close the door and don't open it!"

Johnny was looking around quite alarmed. "Lily, what is it?"

She still had this far-away angry look on her face then she started to turn away, "it's gone."

"What's gone? What is it?"

"I felt it. Over there." She pointed in the direction she was looking. "Something happened. I don't know what exactly. But it gives me a very bad feeling." She stood and thought for a minute. "I think this is very much not good, but I don't remember why." The klaxon stopped. Lily retrieved her chair and sat down to wait, still thinking.

Within a few minutes Professor Young returned, "OK class, everyone done with your quizzes?"

**Professor Colton**

Professor Colton was ten minutes into his 6th year 11am Muggle Studies class. "As you can see from the passage we've just read, the view of the vast majority of Muggles is that magic does not and can not exist. They have what they term a 'scientific view' that precludes the existence of magic. Now, we know that this viewpoint is ridiculous. Magic exists. Consequently, the magical world does not ascribe any validity to the 'scientific view'. The magical community does not - ". A klaxon went off, seemingly somewhere close by. "Stay in the room and keep the door closed!" Professor Colton ran out the door and stopped to listen. The klaxon was coming from the left. As he ran down the hall he heard some muffled noises, like furniture scraping across the floor. As he got closer to the klaxon he saw a magical light indicating that the noises came from a classroom that was not currently used. He stopped outside the door and listened. Nothing. He opened the door and found the room in disarray, but no significant damage. He did a check for any magical residue and found none. He shut off the klaxon, repaired the damage, and started back to his class.

**Johnny**

As they headed for lunch in the Great Hall, via the back door, Johnny was desperately trying to control his curiosity, and mostly succeeded. "Can you tell me what you felt back there? Is that too disturbing now?"

"No, it's fine. I don't know why it's OK now, since it wasn't before, but it's fine now." She considered for a moment. "I felt something happen. I'm not sure what it was or even how I knew but I felt ... A disturbance. It's like hearing a sound."

"You could tell what direction it was, could you tell how far away it was?"

"Generally. It was - maybe two halls away?"

"Wow. That's very cool."

"No, I don't think it is."

"Why not? That's more than I can do."

"Because I could feel it, I'm even scared by it, and therefore I must know something about it. But I don't remember anything! Until I get my memories back, I'm useless."

**Professor Weasley**

**"**Good evening, everyone. Thank you for coming." Lily, Johnny, Jamison, Amanda, and Geary all took seats in Professor Weasley's office. "Who would like to start telling us what happened today?"

"I will. I was really the only one who felt anything." Everyone nodded as Lily continued to tell what she knew. "I was sitting in Professor Young's class with Johnny when I felt it. I don't even know what I felt, but I felt something. It really scared me. I almost fell off my chair. I could tell which direction it was and basically how far away it was. Other than that I got nothing."

Professor Weasley smiled at Lily. "I would wager that you know more than you think you do." Lily didn't look convinced. "Let's try. How did it scare you?"

"I don't know why because I can't remember."

"Ah. Different question. Not why it scared you, how did it scare you? Describe how it felt."

"Mmm." Lily thought for a moment. "At first it felt like someone was chasing me and they had found me. I felt very exposed. Then -", she paused, thinking. "Then I remember getting a flash of huge anger, of rage almost. It's like - like, my life is very good right now and this piece of garbage is going to mess that up! I could kill it! It just made me so mad!" Lily looked quite surprised. "Wow. I'd forgotten I'd felt that way. I didn't even know I could be that mad. Scary."

"So, let me guess a little. If you had your memories you would know what these monsters are. You seem to have some history with them, or something like them and you seem to have a very strong emotional connection with them. And you do not like them. All this is strongly suggested because you have a very strong emotional reaction in spite of the fact that you currently have no memories of them. Am I hitting close to the mark?"

"Yes, I think so."

"And a further guess, I think you lost your memories because they almost killed you last time you met them. And it was just too much."

Emotion was stirring in Lily. "I think maybe you're right there too."

"I don't want to push your memories, I think they will come back when you need them. But I would ask that if you do remember something, please let me know immediately."

"Yes, I will. Thank you Professor." They all got up to leave for dinner.

**Johnny**

Johnny, Amanda, and Lily were walking out of Professor Zelazney's Arithmancy class Friday afternoon. Johnny looked tired. "Finally! The week is over."

"Yes, and what a week it's been." Amanda said tiredly.

"Yes, I've had so much fun." Lily looked positively excited. "Learning magic is so much fun. I can't believe everyone is so nice to me and lets me learn here."

Johnny looked at Lily with a bit of disbelief, "Yeah, think nothing of it. We're glad you're here." The halls were crowded with students moving all directions. "So, about that homework, do -"

Lily jumped and jerked around with a shocked look facing back the way they had been walking. Her face was flinching and blinking, her whole body trembling.

"Lily, what -" Johnny barely started when a klaxon went off just down the next hall. Within seconds a huge roar and crashing could be heard. All the students present moved like a wave rolling back out to sea away from the sound.

Lily screamed, her hands rising to her face. "No! No!" Lily starts to collapse and Amanda catches her.

"Come on, let's go this way." Amanda led the way away with Lily in tow and Johnny brought up the rear guard. Another roar and then a second, higher-pitched alarm started. Within a few seconds Lily fell to her knees and sobbed. "Lily, what's wrong?"

"It's gone." she said between sobs. She shivered and clung to Amanda.

"Let's keep going just in case." Johnny helped Lily stand up and they started moving.

**Professor Weasley**

Professor Weasley walked into the infirmary heading for the last bed and Professor Trillaby, who had started waking up when Nurse Mason called her. As she walked around the curtains, he was just looking and feeling around for his glasses. "Good evening Professor. How are you feeling?"

He started to say something, coughed, and got his voice in somewhat working order. "Oh, God, I am way too old for this. But amazingly well, considering."

"I'm not used to seeing professors in here, just students." Professor Weasley smiled. Nurse Mason came around the curtains and started checking his condition.

"I think I'll have more sympathy for those unlucky students, from now on." He coughed again.

"Can you tell me what happened?" The Headmistress asked quietly.

"Class had just got out, I was just answering a few student's questions when I heard a huge roar and then a klaxon went off. It sounded right nearby, so I ran out the door and there was the warning light indicating the classroom three down from mine." He coughed again and paused a moment. "I went toward it and heard tables crashing. I stood back on the other side of the hall and magically threw open the door. Good thing I wasn't standing there because a table came flying and crashed into the door frame where I would have been standing. I moved down the hall a bit so I could see into the class and saw a huge monster filling the room. Thank God no students were in that room, it was throwing tables around like matchsticks."

"What do you remember of it?"

"It's the size of a Mountain Troll! Mottled gray and brown skin, what looks like a small head, giant teeth, long arms, and relatively short legs. It was wearing a shirt of chain mail, gauntlets, a sword in a scabbard on it's belt. That sword would be too big for me, but it looked like a small dagger to it. And it was swinging a very large ax."

"Did it see you?"

"Yes, eventually it saw me and started toward me, slashing the tables out of it's way with it's ax. I'm afraid I wasn't being very neighborly, I sent a cutting hex at it and it just bounced off. I sent a number of other hexes and nothing seemed to have any effect. As it got close to the door I levitated one of the remaining tables and sent it as hard as I could at it. I hit it in the head, knocked it back quite a ways. It was still moving, but it didn't get up. Then another monster seemed to appear in the room, like it walked through the wall on the left. It picked up a broken table leg and threw it at me. I tried to dodge it, but evidently not completely. Well, actually, I tried to stop it with magic first, but that didn't seem to work well so I tried to dodge, but it was too late. I don't remember anything after that. Did they get away?"

"Evidently they went back to where they came from. When Professor Colton got there he saw no monsters and there are none in the castle."

"How are they getting into the castle? They shouldn't be able to get through the wards."

"They are creating a hole between alternate universes. So they aren't passing through any of the wards. That's why I set up the klaxon to warn us of any activities that are destructive yet do not seem to be magical in origin."

"Oh." He looked dumbfounded. "What the hell are we going to do?"

"Call the Ministry, first off."

"Bah! Idiots! A waste of breath. What are _we_ going to do?"

"I have some ideas. I'll let you know if they work out." She started toward the door.

"You've got something up your sleeve!" He looked like he would reach for her if he could.

"Nurse Mason says you'll be out by the morning," and she was out the door. When she got back to her office she grabbed some flu powder and called the Ministry to give them an update and pave the way for more requests later.

**Johnny**

Johnny, Geary, and Jamison were in the library studying on what was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Lily was there too, though she was having a great time playing with her new found transfiguration skills and 'adjusting' everything in sight. She was so excited by it that they weren't able to get her to do anything else for days. Just plain delirious is how Johnny would describe it.

Lily dropped her 'wand' and jumped up facing the door. A klaxon went off. Everyone in the library looked up, either at Lily or at the door. Johnny looked torn between running into the hall and staying with his friends. Lily looked confused, caught between fear and anger. A second, higher-pitched alarm went off. Outside the door to the library the sound of many running feet. Johnny started moving toward the door just as Amanda came running through the door, her face flushed, her eyes wild, breathing hard, and blood dripping down her right arm from a large cut.

"Amanda! What happened?" Johnny puller her away from the door as a few more students came through the door.

"Monsters." was all she would say.

"Come on, let's get you to the infirmary."

"No! Not yet. Not until they are gone." Amanda was still panicked.

"Ok. Lily, are they gone?"

"No, not yet." She looked very frighted at the sight of Amanda injured.

"Did anyone else get hurt?" Geary asked.

"Yes, at least one other, I think. A seventh year from Gryfindor. They tried to grab a student!" Amanda was starting to get a little hysterical. "That's when the seventh year got hurt, he tried to stop them."

Johnny went to the door and peeked out. All was quiet in the hall. Then they heard a boom that was a ways away.

"Their gone." Lily said very relieved.

"Ok, let's head to the infirmary." Johnny was rather grim.

**Professor Weasley**

Professor Weasley walked into a very busy infirmary. Nurse Morse was fully involved with the Gryfindor seventh year who had several broken bones and internal injuries. She stood by watching and waiting for Nurse Morse to come to a less critical phase. The door to the infirmary opened and in came Johnny who was helping Amanda, followed by Lily, Jamison, and Geary. Amanda had blood running down her right arm. "Amanda, what happened?"

"Monsters," Amanda said in a vacant tone.

Professor Weasley set to work healing her wound. Luckily she had so much experience healing wounds from the war. "How did you get this?"

"Munson, the seventh year over there, was trying to get the monster to let go of the second year it had grabbed. It worked, but he got hit in the process. Then I was trying to get Munson away when it took a swipe at me." Amanda had a rather dreamy disconnected sound.

"Nurse Morse, have you checked for poison in Munson's wounds?" Professor Weasley asked briskly.

"Yes, Headmistress, there was none."

"Excellent, thank you. You are very lucky, Amanda. And you are amazingly brave. Thank you for helping Munson." Then Professor Weasley had an idea. "Lily, can you come over here?"

Lily came to stand next to Professor Weasley. "Yes, what can I do?"

"Can you take a look at this wound and tell me if you can sense anything of the monsters in it? I want to know if there is any magic residue left in it."

"No, I don't feel anything in it."

"Can you try again with Munson's wounds too?" Lily moved over to Munson and looked closely.

"No, nothing here either."

"Excellent, thank you very much, dear." Then Professor Weasley thought for a moment. "You know, that gives me another idea. Lily, you said - or I guess showed - that the monsters left a magical residue when they showed up."

"Yes, they do, a very strong one."

"Could they be marking each site in the castle that they 'visit' and by that, track where they have been? That way they can build up a map of the castle?"

"Yes! Now that you mention it, I think that's exactly what they are doing."

"Could you think about - just think about it, don't do it - about trying to use your magic to cleans the areas they have marked?"

"Yes! I'd love to. I don't know what I'd do but I'd sure love to give it a try. Anything to mess them up."

"Ok, let's clean up this mess and then we can see about giving that a try. But first, I have to call the Ministry. We need some Aurors to help here." She finished up Amanda's wounds and sent them off to dinner, while she headed for her office. By dinner time six Aurors had appeared to help with castle security. As well, it was time to have an announcement to the whole school about what has been happening.

As the Great Hall filled up with hungry students she was preparing her statement. "Ladies and Gentlemen, a word before we begin." Everyone's attention started to focus. "As I think most of you know we have been having some disturbing incidents in the last few days." This got their attention. "We have some uninvited creatures showing up in the castle and causing damage. They are not entering the castle through the wards, the wards are still quite secure. They are punching a whole between alternate universes, so they are not hindered by the wards. They also seem to be mostly immune to our style of magic. And they seem rather violent. Thus we have asked the Ministry of Magic for help and they have been gracious enough to send us 6 Aurors to help with security. Mr. Morrison is in charge of the Aurors. As you may have noticed, there is a klaxon which is triggered when these uninvited creatures cause problems. Then we have a second alarm which goes off when one of our people gets injured. Please be aware of these warnings, and when you hear one, run the other way. Let me say that again - _run the other way_! Also be aware that during one of these incidents, the castle may respond on it's own and change hallways, staircases, doors, anything to hinder the creatures. If you get caught in one of these changes, as long as you are not caught with a creature - which I don't think you will - just wait and the castle will return to it's normal state after the crisis has passed. If you have further questions, ask your head of house. Thank you."

Professor Colton brought Mr. Morrison and his team over to where Professor Weasley was standing. "Mr. Morrison, I'm glad you're all here. Please, come to the staff room where we can talk about our situation." They all moved down the hall to the staff room, including most of the school staff. "Well, Mr. Morrison, again I want to thank you and your team for helping us with this issue. And, I'm glad to see you all again. It's bee a while since you all graduated from Hogwarts."

"Thank you Professor, it's very nice to be back. Though I must say that if you can't handle this problem, I don't know what we are going to be able to do to help."

"You can help a lot, Mr Morrison. Let me explain what we know so far. Several weeks ago we had our first incident. There was a substantial explosion in the Main Hall where a number of students were injured, a monster's arm was cut off, and an unknown girl showed up who was critically injured. The students remember a very large 'monster', the size of a mountain troll, with a very large mace. This monster kicked the unknown girl and there was an explosion and everything disappeared from the Main Hall except the monster's arm and the girl. We found no magical residue at all."

"None?" Mr. Morrison and his crew were shocked.

"No, nor chemical residue either. We don't know where the explosion came from. When we looked at the physical residue in the Main Hall we found splashes of human blood from 9 different people, none of them students, and the 'blood' of 3 monsters. We sent our injured students to the infirmary where they were healed quickly. The mystery girl was sent to the infirmary before we noticed that she was not a student. She was unconscious with over 15 broken bones and numerous internal injuries. As we were treating her she woke up through our sleep spells, threw a bed frame through the infirmary window and jumped out."

"Blimey! Jumped out?" Mr. Morrison was incredulous.

"Yes. At the time, we thought she was a muggle since we could sense no magic in her. When she jumped I tried to levitate her fall but as my magic was about to connect there was a huge explosion which almost collapsed the infirmary. We do not know the origin of that explosion, as we found no magical or chemical residue there either. She was, of course, injured yet again. We kept her sedated with a rotating set of potions until she was completely healed. Eventually, we started to wake the girl up and all went well. Except that she spoke no English, or any other language we could figure out. I tested her for magic and found that she is quite magical. She could see through all manner of concealing spells of wizards, house elves, centaurs, and others. Then, luckily, we found a set of 5 translation spells that, when connected, gave a passable translation."

"Wow. What was the root language?"

"We don't know. The translation spell for the two lowest languages were all that remained of those languages. The spells did not indicate what the language was, let alone how to speak it."

"Absolutely amazing!"

"Yes, it was quite an interesting problem. Unfortunately, the girl does not remember anything from before, not even her name. Consequently, we have not pushed her, we are waiting for her memories to come back on their own. And I think they will very soon now. One interesting point, the set of translation spells wore down and began to fail within less than a week, yet the girl continued to speak English perfectly, even losing the accent that she started with. I let the spells collapse and she still speaks excellently."

"I have never heard of that happening."

"Yes, neither have I. I have been granted temporary custody of her and we have given her the name of Lily Weasley. We have been tutoring her in our style of magic and she has been learning by leaps and bounds. It is quite amazing to see. The most interesting aspect is that she can sense, at a distance, the monster's magic. She can tell when they come and go from the castle and she can sense their magical residue. She does have subconscious knowledge of them, but in the interests of her health we have not pushed her to remember. I'm afraid it is likely that these incidents are likely to force her to remember. Any questions?"

"You said these monsters are immune to our style of magic?"

"Ah, yes. The third incident we had involved Professor Trillaby, here. The monsters were unaffected by our style of magic. They were not immune to our magic throwing a table at them. But as Professor Trillaby found out, they can throw something at you and your magic may not be able to deflect it."

"Well. That's quite a lot to absorb. Have you had any incidents outside the castle?"

"No, only inside. But they have been all over the castle. We think that with each incident, they leave a magical residue and they are using that to map the castle. We were about to experiment with that when you came."

"Very interesting idea. Let me organize my team and then I would love to participate in that."

**Johnny**

As dinner was just winding down, Johnny, Lily, Jamison, Amanda, and Geary were still seated in the Great Hall talking when Professor Weasley and several of the Aurors walked up.

Professor Weasley spoke first. "Good evening everyone. This is Mr Morrison, head of the Auror team who will be helping us and Shelley Cauldwin, one of his team."

"Hello" the students all mumbled in shy tones.

"Hello everyone. Having fun at Hogwarts are you? I still remember my days here. A lot of history in these walls." Mr Morrison sounded quite nostalgic.

"Yes, if these walls could only talk." Professor Weasley said with a wry grin while looking pointedly at Mr Morrison. He coughed and looked down. Everyone laughed.

"Ah, did we mention some experiments, I think?" Mr. Morrison's deflection was deliciously obvious, not to mention his grin.

"Yes, this is Lily." The Professor held out her hand to Lily, who stood up and shook their hands. "She can sense the monsters magical residue, and we think she may be able to affect the residue. And these are her friends Johnny, Jaminson, Amanda, and Geary. They have been a great help to Lily in adjusting to Hogwarts."

"Mmmm. That sounds interesting. How would you like to proceed, Professor?" Mr Morrison looked very interested.

"I think we should try one of the smaller incidents first. Lily has had a very difficult time dealing with the larger incident sites before. How do you feel about the first site, Lily?"

"I'd like to try. I don't know how I'll react, but I have to do something."

"Then off we go." Professor Weasley led the way to the first incident, near Professor Young's charms classroom. As they got close Lily started to get nervous. Professor Weasley stopped at the door to the classroom and turned, "This room has had the tables repaired but that is all. Are you ready Lily?" Lily looked very nervous, but nodded. The Professor opened the door and Lily slowly looked in.

"Yes, I can feel it." Lily started to enter.

Johnny was surprised. Lily's whole posture and movement changed. She reminded Johnny of a cat gliding into a room and stopping to listen occasionally. Her eyes were hard and her expression was angry. She moved to the center of the room, her hands floating around her like a dancer. "They were here." She closed her eyes and slowly spun in a circle. A burst of light that looked more like a shock wave emanated from Lily and passed out of the room. She slowly stopped turning, looked at Professor Weasley, and said, "It's gone. I don't feel it any more."

Professor Weasley looked surprised. "Yes, we saw some magic flow out from you. You must have cleansed the room."

Lily looked confused. "Magic? From me? I - didn't notice."

"What's wrong, Lily?" Professor Weasley looked concerned now too.

"I'm not in control of myself. A few days ago I blew up my room without even understanding what I did. Here I didn't even notice that I did magic. I'm afraid I'm going to hurt someone." Lily looked very upset.

"Yes, I can see how -".

Lily spun around and gasped. "They're here! Down that way!" She was pointing down toward the dungeons. A klaxon went off.

"Students, you stay here!" Professor Weasley said and the adults ran out the door and down the hall.

**Professor Weasley**

As they ran down the hallway Professor Weasley touched the coin on her lapel and said, "Where are they?"

Professor Colton's voice came back, "In the dungeon, past Slytherin House."

They kept running and the Professor asked. "Tell me what's happening?"

"Two monsters, maybe more. Two - no three Aurors are here." Professor Zelazney said.

"Any students involved?"

"No students currently involved, but if they get lose we could be in trouble."

"Don't. let. them. get. loose!"

"How? Nothing seems to be working." Professor Colton sounded on the verge of panic.

"Try fire. Real fire!" Professor Weasley heard some huge roars as they were nearing the dungeons. When they got to the dungeons fire light was flickering in the hall. All the Aurors were throwing curses of all sorts down the hall through the flames stretched across the hall floor, toward the monsters with no effect. A crash as a huge dungeon door was torn off it's hinges and flung it spinning at Mr. Bartlett, one of the Aurors. It hit him and threw him down the passage and against the side wall, the door still flying at the others. Professor Weasley magically picked up some stonework that had broken off of the ceiling where a monster had hit it and used it to stop the door. Then she magically threw it at the monster in front. It was almost as big as the monster's head and hit it square in the chest with enough force to knock it over and down the passage 15 feet. She picked up that stone again and hit the other one almost as hard. As she was about to try again, they disappeared.

Mr Morisson put out the flames, "Shelley, get Bartlett to the infirmary. Samantha, check for magical residue. Brent, any other damage or injuries?"

"No, sir. Just what you see here." Brent Dollon said.

Mr Morrison looked around with a scared look. "How did it go, Brent?"

"I've never felt so useless in my life. If it weren't for the dungeon walls we couldn't have stopped them, and I bet they won't do that again." Brent looked thoroughly spooked.

"No magical signature other than ours, sir." Samantha Milner said.

"How did you see it, Samantha?" Mr. Morrison asked.

"Pretty useless. I couldn't control their actions at all. As far as I see it, currently the castle is our only defense." Samantha Milner was starting to shake.

"The fire seemed to contain them." Mr Morrison sounded a bit hopeful.

"Yes, but we can't use it very much. In the castle the smoke and heat could kill us, not to mention using up all the air in the dungeons." Auror Milner said.

Mr Morrison brought his hands to his forehead and walked in a circle. "Ok, let's go check on Bartlett. We have to do something productive."

"Yes, then let's collect the staff and talk about it." Professor Weasley said.

**General Ian Wright**

The Watch Lieutenant at the Basingstoke Nuclear Monitoring Station decided it was time. He decided to raise a red flag against the swarm of shallow earthquakes that had been happening for the last several days all within the geo-fenced perimeter of National Security Area 326. There has never been earthquakes in that area before and for five shallow ones within the space of a week was too far out of the norm. That little red flag traveled through a lot of offices before landing on the desk of General Ian Write. General Write was in charge of a group with the innocuous title of Special Security Relations Office within MI5. He read the flagged report and immediately picked up the phone to 10 Downing Street. He had a meeting arranged within the hour and he left to meet his driver.

When General Write walked into the conference room he was met by Prime Minister Richard Howe. "Good Morning Prime Minister."

They shook hands and the Prime Minister said, "Hello Ian, how are you this fine Sunday morning?"

"Well, we shall see." They took chairs around the conference table. "As I had expected, we got our red flag report on an earthquake swarm in National Security Area 326 last night. It took a few hours for the report to make it to my desk."

"Any new word from our sources, General?" the PM asked.

"No, none yet. If the initial reports were accurate, I suspect they are rather busy at the moment. But also, if the situation had improved I would expect notification."

"Very well. Are we ready to make the call?" The PM asked with a steely smile.

"Yes, sir." They got up and moved into the PM's office, where the PM walked over to the painting against the left wall and pulled the little string hanging down from below it. A light chime was heard. They waited.

"Think anyone is home?" The PM was looking like a cat watching a bird. He pulled the string again and another chime. Starting to get a bit impatient, he pulled the string 2 more times. In a moment, the face in the painting changed and came to life. It became a middle-aged man who looked relatively normal.

"Y-yes - Oh! Prime Minister! Yes, what can I do for you?" The man said clumsily.

"Well, you obviously aren't the Minister of Magic. Who are you?" The PM was a bit short.

"Oh, ah, yes. My name is Heatherstone, James Heatherstone. I'm an assistant to the Minister of Magic."

" - Is he around?" The PM was piling on the pressure.

"Ah, no sir, he isn't at the moment. Can I have him call you?" Mr Heatherstone looked caught out.

The PM decided to go for the jugular. "We have a situation, Mr Heatherstone. We've noticed a swarm of shallow earthquakes all in the last week underneath National Security Area 326 - that would be your school... Are you having some problem there?"

"Ah, well, the school? Oh, yes... the monsters, yes that..."

"Monsters, Mr. Heatherstone? I don't like the sound of that. What can you tell me about that?" The PM was smiling under his scowl.

Mr. Heatherstone was starting to sweat and look pale at the same time, all without magic. "Ah, we ... we're ... the school seems to be - it looks – ." His face fell. "It's getting attacked. By monsters." He now looked completely defeated.

"Mr Heatherstone, we are invoking the security provisions in the Covenant. We will have a team landing outside your school within 2 hours. Please have someone there to meet them. Do you acknowledge?" The PM was not going to miss this opportunity.

"Yes, sir. We will have someone standing by." Mr. Heatherstone looked ashen.

"Good day Mr. Heatherstone." The PM said politely. All he got in return was a small nod and the painting returned to normal. "General Write, gather your SAS team and meet them there. Full kit, please."

"Yes, sir!" The General said through his big smile and saluted.

**Professor Weasley**

Professor Weasley was standing in the infirmary with Mr. Morrison watching Nurse Mason work on Mr. Bartlett. He was severely injured but was expected to be back to normal within a week or so. She was about to ask Mr Morrison a question when the coin on her lapel spoke up.

"Professor Weasley, the Minister of Magic's office is trying to reach you." Professor Colton said.

"I'll be in my office in a minute, thank you." She started off out the door without noticing the pained look on Mr. Morrison's face.

When she got there, there was a face waiting for her in the fire. "Hello, are you with the Minister's office?"

"Yes, my name is James Heatherstone, an assistant with the Minister of Magic. The Minister is out and I haven't been able to reach him. But I got a call from the Prime Minister's office." He swallowed hard and started to look pale. "He invoked the security provisions of the Covenant and insisted on sending a team to investigate what is happening at your school."

"Really? And you haven't been able to reach the Minister?" Professor Weasley was incredulous.

"No, I haven't. The team from the Prime Minister's office will be at your gates in about 30 minutes. I'm sorry I couldn't give you more time. They insisted."

Professor Weasley sighed heavily. "Very well. I'll meet them. Thank you Mr. Heatherstone." Mr. Heatherstone was gone.

She touched the coin on her lapel, "Professor Colton, call all the staff to the staff room for a mandatory meeting in 10 minutes. Including the Aurors."

"Everyone?" Professor Colton's voice rose rather high on that one.

"Everyone."

She started her slow walk down to the staff room, thinking about what she will say. By the time she got there the staff room was full. She walked in and the room went silent. "Ladies and Gentleman, I have just talked to the Minister's office. They just had a conversation with the Muggle Prime Ministers office. They have noticed that we have a situation here and they are invoking the security provisions of the Covenant." Gasps and shock all around. "They are sending a team to help. They will be here in 15 minutes. I do not know the nature of that team or their goals. We will have to work that out when they get here. I want everyone - and I mean _everyone_ - to treat them with respect. Ostensibly, they are here to help and given our track record with these monsters, they just might be able to do it. We must give them the opportunity to help." Her words slowed way down for emphasis. "Now listen very closely. I will fire anyone who disparages them or their abilities. We must be _gracious_ hosts. Do I make myself clear?" She looked each person in the eye. "Heads of houses, I will call your students back to their common rooms so you can explain this to your students just as I have explained this to you. Threaten them with bodily harm if they step out of line. Is that clear?" She looked around again. "Professor Colton and I will meet them at the front gate in 10 minutes. We will introduce them to the students at dinner. Any questions?" She looked around once again. "Then let's get it done. Professor Colton?" He nodded and they headed out the staff room door toward the Main Hall. As they walked Professor Weasley put her wand to her throat and said, "All students report to your common rooms immediately. Meet your Heads of House in your common rooms, they have a message for you. Go now." Her voice reverberated throughout the castle.

Professors Weasley turned to Professor Colton, "Professor Colton, the next hour is of critical importance. I would ask that you watch and listen. It should be _quite_ interesting." He nodded. The two Professors walked in silence to the front gate and stepped outside. There they waited, though they weren't sure what for. They did not have long to wait.

**General Ian Write and Captain Steven Hathaway**

The troop helicopter flew low and fast over the countryside. It carried an SAS team of 6, their leader Captain Steven Hathaway, General Write, and all their gear, which was considerable. As they approached the landing zone they slowed their forward motion, trading it for altitude, until they were over their landing point. Then the big helicopter dropped down nimbly. There were two people standing off to the side of the landing zone near some crumbling stonework. A middle-aged man and an elderly woman dressed in what looked like barrister's robes. The wind was whipping the trees around and kicking up leaves. But not on the man and woman; their clothes were not ruffled and leaves were not pelting them. The wind did not touch them. The instant the helicopter touched down both side doors flew open, the team jumped out, and they dragged out crates of gear and dropped them on the ground. All the team except the General knelt down with their guns ready in a perimeter defense. The helicopter then leaped into the air with a loud roar and jaw-dropping speed for such a large machine. The wind eventually settled down and General Write turned to meet the two strangers, followed by his team. His team was outfitted with full camo gear, helmets, goggles, gloves, ballistic vests, machine guns, and side arms. Though the General was wearing a normal dress uniform.

"Good Afternoon. My name is General Ian Write. I am sent by the Prime Minister." He held out his hand and shook it with each of them.

"Hello, My name is Professor Hermione Weasley, Headmistress of the school you see behind me. This is Professor David Colton Deputy Headmaster. Welcome. I am very glad you are here. I trust that you have all been briefed on the nature of our school and our community?"

"Yes, we have." General Write said.

"Good. Then I'd like to start with introductions."

"But I'm a little confused, I don't see a school behind you."

"You will in a minute." She and Professor Colton approached Captain Hathaway.

"I am Captain Steven Hathaway, and this is my team." He proceeded to introduce each member of his team.

"Very good indeed. Thank you for coming. Now that the introductions are done, I'd like so show you the school you have come to help protect. Please, turn around and see." Professor Weasley had skillfully maneuvered them into looking away from Hogwarts while shaking hands. Now they turned around and collectively stopped breathing.

"My God..." General Write said. The castle was in it's full glory. The gates and the arch, which were just a pile of stones before, were now solid and beautiful.

Professor Weasley spoke softly. "This school has existed on this spot for over 1000 years. It has educated nearly every British Witch and Wizard in that time. This is one of the foundations of our society. Inside this school you will see truly amazing things. We currently have over 600 students ranging from 11 through 17 years of age. And we are honored that you could be here to participate in it's protection."

"This is unbelievable." Captain Hathaway said.

Professor Weasley let the view sink in for a minute. "I do need to warn you of a few things. First, electronic devices do not function in a magical environment. So no cell phones, radios, computers, Internet, night-vision goggles, etc. I have some functional equivalents for you. Second, our magical community has been separated from the non-magical world for a very long time. Thus some significant adjustment may be required on _both_ sides." She glanced at Professor Colton. "Third, and I want to be very clear on this, I am responsible for this school and it's students. These are _my_ students, and I will defend them against _anyone_ who threatens them, even with my life. I understand you have a mission and I will try to accommodate that mission, but I will not compromise my responsibility. Is that clear?"

General Write saw the steel in her eyes and was taken aback. "Yes. I agree completely."

"Then come and see the school and let me tell you a little about magic." She smiled and started walking toward the school.

"Excuse me Professor, but we need to move our gear." Captain Hathaway said.

"Oh, yes. Let me help you." She wiggled a stick at them and every crate and case floated into the air. "These cases are now tied to each of you and will follow along behind you. So come, dinner awaits." The entire muggle team was aghast.

"While we walk, let me explain some of the things you will encounter that may startle you. First, please do not be startled if you see ghosts. They are mostly harmless, so please, no shooting at them. Second most every object in the magical world can have what looks and sounds like intelligence built into it. For example, don't be surprised if a mirror talks back to you, or the people in the paintings on the wall move and interact with you. Every object can look and sound intelligent. That includes the castle itself. We also have quite an array of magical creatures. One in particular that you will likely meet are House Elves. They do many services for us and they love to please us, but you should not consider them harmless. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that the magical world is a safe place. On the contrary, it can be quite dangerous to those unprepared. Similarly with your world. We have with us the magical equivalent of Policemen, we call them Aurors. We will team you up with them so we can learn from each other. One more thing. We have a term for non-magical people, it is 'muggle'. This has been, in the past, quite pejorative. With the younger generations this is no longer so. But you will still hear someone say, for instance, that they are 'muggle-born' which is to say they are a magical child born of non-magical parents. So we have some students who grew up in your world and are quite aware of your capabilities. But the majority of students are from very old magical families who don't even have a basic understanding of electricity, or anything outside of our magical community. They are frightfully good at magic but do not have a clue about the wider world. I would ask for your considerable forbearance for our more parochial students - and probably some staff. And here we are. This is the Main Hall of the Castle. And in here is the Great Hall where meals are served. Let me introduce you to the students. Then dinner, then a meeting with the staff."

Professor Weasley magically opened the doors to the Great Hall and stepped in with the muggle team behind her and all their gear, uniforms, and weapons. The room instantly silenced. The SAS team all gasped at the entire scene. "Students, staff, let me introduce to you members of Her Majesty's Military Service, General Ian Write, Captain Steven Hathaway, and his team. They are here to help protect us against these creatures from an alternate universe. Given that our magic seems to be rather ineffective against the creatures, General Write and his team will likely be very important for our safety." Professor Weasley conjured another table in the space to the left of the door perpendicular to the Gryfindor table, like another shorter head table at the opposite end of the room. "This table is for you and the Aurors. Now, let us eat!" Food appeared on every table. The students cheered, and again, the muggles just about fell over. Then they stacked their gear against the wall, sat down to dig in.

Eventually, the SAS team made it to the safety of the staff room for the briefing. Professor Weasley was there, the Aurors, and all the staff of the school. Professor Weasley started speaking. "Good evening, everyone. Let's get started. This is primarily a briefing for the SAS team, but all are welcome. So let's go over what has happened since this began. First, there was an explosion in the Main Hall. The result of that was 2 injured students, the severed arm of a monster, and an unknown girl showing up severely injured in the event. The girl remembers nothing, the monster was at least 16 feet tall or the size of a bull elephant, and we don't know how they got into the school. You see, we have wards that protect the school - basically, very high magical walls that keep anything dangerous out. Our House Elves say that these monsters are from an alternate universe from ours. Oh, and I think I've forgotten to introduce you to our House Elves. Dobby!"

Dobby popped into existence next to Professor Weasley. The SAS team gasped. "Yes, Headmistress? What can Dobby do for you?"

"Dobby, let me introduce you to our guests. These are members of Her Majesty's Military. They are here to help us deal with the monsters. This is General Ian Write and Captain Steven Hathaway. If you would be so kind as to get them what they need, I would appreciate it, Dobby."

"Yes, Headmistress. The House Elves will help."

"Thank you, Dobby." He popped out of existence.

General Write looked quite puzzled. "How many House Elves do you have here?"

"We have about 40. They handle a lot of the operational aspects of the school; laundry, food, and cleaning. Their magic is of a slightly different style than ours, to use a radio analogy you might say it runs on a slightly different but somewhat overlapping frequency range than ours. So they do have significant strength when they need it."

"Are they slaves?" General Write did not look happy.

Professor Weasley looked rather pained. "I will not hide anything General. In a few households they are treated like slaves. But not here and not in most households. The difficulty is that we have not been able to change their behavior. They still think and act in terms that we would say look too much like slavery. For example, we can not get them to accept wages. In over 80 years of trying we have only been able to convince one House Elf to accept wages and that would be Dobby. He only accepted wages after he was subjected to years of significant abuse from his former master. We don't think that years of abuse are an acceptable strategy for getting House Elves to accept wages. So we treat them well and keep trying. And yes, General, if you call Dobby's name he will pop in and try and help."

"Amazing." the general turned to his team and said, "Let's maintain respect, team. Clear?". Nodding all around. "What other magical creatures do you have around here?"

"Well, pretty much all the usual you might recognize from fairy tales; unicorns, trolls, centaurs, dragons, pixies, and the like. But those are all in the Forbidden Forest, the forest next to the castle. The point being, don't send anyone into the forest, it's quite dangerous. The castle does not have much in the way of magical creatures, but it has a lot of charmed objects like suits of armor that talk, paintings and statues that interact with you, and the like. The castle itself is almost self-aware and can reconfigure itself in response to threats by moving walls, staircases, and hiding doors."

"Yes, you mentioned that electronics don't work in a magical environment?"

"That's right. I have some replacement items for you." She held up the set of them. "This first one looks like a coin and it attaches to your lapel. You touch it and it will transmit your voice to the other coins in your group. It's a replacement for your radios." She passed out coins to the SAS Team and the Aurors. "The next is a map of the castle, but like most things magical it has it's own intelligence. It is linked to the castle and it shows the location and identification of every person in the castle. Think of it as the magical equivalent of your Blue Force Tracker." She passed out a map to every SAS Team member and Auror.

"Oh, yes! Excellent!" Captain Hathaway was very excited.

"The next item, you will truly love. This is your insurance policy. This is what we call a portkey. It is a charmed object that will instantaneously transport anyone who is touching it, and says the right word, to a designated location. In this particular case, directly to the infirmary. If you touch it and say the right word, you will pop directly to the infirmary. Also, it is charmed so that if you lose consciousness for more than 15 seconds you will be transported regardless."

"Wow! Just awesome!" Lt. Minden was particularly excited about this one.

"And the word to say is 'jellyroll'. But, there are side-effects to be aware of. If you are touching anyone else when you say the word, they will be transported also. This is good if you are touching one of us, but not so good if you are touching a monster. Understood?"

"Yes, quite clear." Lt. Minden said.

"Good. We have the castle set up so that a klaxon goes off when the monsters show up. Then there is a second high pitched alarm if one of our people gets injured. As you get close the the klaxon you will see a flashing warning light indicating where the monster is, for example the light will flash in the hall outside of a classroom where a monster is."

"How often have attacks been happening, Professor?" General Write was concerned.

"The frequency has been increasing rather steadily. We are down to less than 12 hours between attacks and the last one was at about ten this morning."

"So we're coming due." Captain Hathaway was thoughtful.

"Yes, very close."

"Ok, so we should form teams with your Aurors so we can get used to the environment and maybe they can show us around so we don't get so lost. Since our teams are about the same size, how about two and two to a team? That gives us three teams for three shifts." Captain Hathaway looked anxious to get started.

"That would be excellent, Captain. Though before you start wandering around the castle, why don't I show all of you where your rooms will be?"

"Rooms? You mean we don't get the dungeons?" the head Auror said with a grin.

Captain Hathaway spoke up, "that's better than I was expecting, sleeping outside in a tent."

"Outside! Oh that's harsh."

Captain Hathaway said in a stage whisper behind his hand, "... Ya never should'a showed House Elves to the General!" Everyone laughed, including the general.

The teams were arranged and everyone followed Professor Weasley to the prepared rooms on the third floor. Leading the SAS team through the halls was like leading kids through a candy store. They had to stop at every new thing; paintings, suits of armor, statues, secret passages, trick steps, Peeves, Nearly Headless Nick, the main staircases, but luckily no Bogarts yet. Of course, everyone enjoyed watching Professor Weasley almost choke the life out of Peeves and threaten to banish him if he at all disturbed the SAS team.

Professor Weasley approached a rather large painting of a knight attacking a dragon with a spear. "Good evening, Sir Gwain."

"Good evening, Headmistress. Some new warriors, I see." Sir Gwain in the painting was eyeing them with a hard look.

"Yes, Her Majesty's Army." Turning to the team she said, "Sir Gwain, here, is your entrance. The password is 'tickets'." Sir Gwain bowed and the painting started to swing open and she lead the way in. There was a common-room surrounded by a number of rooms, each with their own facilities. "I'll leave you to work out the exact room arrangements."

Captain Hathaway said, "thank you very much Professor. I think we should talk about team assignments, patrol routes, and schedules. Then we can start on tours and maps."

"I agree. I think it should be straightforward." Mr. Morrison, while initially not very happy, was becoming quite accommodating.

Professor Weasley asked, "General Write, if you have a few minutes, I'd like to talk to you about a few details."

"Yes, good idea." He and Professor Weasley moved off in the direction of her office.

"Wow, this is truly amazing. Did all of you Aurors go to school here?" Captain Hathaway asked.

"Yes, each of us spent seven years here. This place and the staff all have a lot of memories for us." Mr Morrison said.

"Is it hard to see something like this happening here?"

"Yes, quite. For all of _our_ memories this place has been peaceful. Nothing more dangerous than student pranks. Though in Professor Weasley's time, this was an actual war zone. Quite a number students and staff died and the castle was almost destroyed." Mr. Morrison looked rather affected.

"Really? What caused that?"

"That was an insane dark wizard who went by the name of Voldemort. He was basically a racist who killed thousands. Professor Weasley was one of the ones who finally stopped him."

"Here? Right here in Britain? We didn't here anything about it!"

"Yes, memory altering charms and magical cleanup kept things quiet. Those were unbelievably dark and desperate times."

"What are our rules of engagement, sir?" Lt. Minden broke in to ask the Captain.

"Someone's getting engaged?" Mr Morrison asked with a bit of a confused look.

"The rules of conduct for this fight. With civilians around, no grenades unless absolutely necessary. Also, sure-shot only, no suppressing fire. The stone walls will ricochet anything we shoot several times. Otherwise, check with the Aurors for target ID then shoot on sight." Captain Hathaway said.

"What's a grenade?" Mr. Morrison asked.

Lt. Minden had a grim smile on her face. "Explosives wrapped in a metal shell. When the explosive detonates the metal fragments into lots of sharp bits that spray everywhere at high velocity. Quite effective."

"Oh." Mr. Morrison looked pale.

**Captain Hathaway**

Captain Hathaway was walking down the hall with Sgt Mitchel and Aurors Milner and Dollon, as the on-duty team. At 10:30 on a Tuesday, a quiet murmur was leaking out of the classrooms. His gear looked very out of place in this "civilian" school, not to mention that the school looked very medieval.

"Captain Hathaway, comm check." Sgt. Tesson's voice came out of the coin on his lapel. Tesson was running the comm net for the ready-team while the off-duty team was sleeping.

"Acknowledge, status normal," Tesson responded.

"You do that a lot? The – 'com check'? Why?" Milner asked.

"Yes, every half hour. It's both verifying the communications link still works and that we're still OK, because if we didn't check it we'd never know it failed until it's too late." Captain Hathaway said a little distractedly, as he was getting the feeling that a painting occupant was following him around. "You ever get the feeling that these paintings are full of stalkers?"

Auror Milner laughed. "It's just you Captain. They like you, and you are such an interesting character."

"Wonderful. Paparazzi paintings."

Milner laughed again. "You haven't seen anything yet."

"Haha. I guess life isn't that different regardless of where you go. People are still people, magical or not."

"Yes. Once I was chasing a wizard who ran into muggle London and I got lost within two blocks. So I stopped to ask -"

A klaxon went off. "A klaxon. Any location?" Captain Hathaway spoke to his coin.

"It's upstairs from here." Dollon said as he looked up.

"How do we get there?" Capt. Hathaway said.

"Back this way!" Milner started running back towards the stairs.

Capt. Hathaway and Sgt. Mitchel took the safeties off their weapons and loaded the first round as they ran.

A student's voice came out of the coin, "Professor Weasley, Lily says the monsters are splitting up and running through the castle!"

"Where! We need to know where!" Capt. Hathaway yelled into his coin.

"Two on the third floor, central hall!" an older male voice came from the coin.

Sgt. Tesson's voice came from the coin, "The tracker seems to indicate another monster heading in the direction of the Main Hall, another heading for the main staircases, and a third heading up to the fourth floor."

"I've got the Main Hall, Lt. Mindin can you take the one heading up?" Captain Hathaway said.

"Got'm!" Lt. Mindin said.

"I'll take the Main Staircases!" Tesson said.

"Davis & Causwell have the third floor!" Sgt. Davis said.

"The monsters have taken a student!" An older male voice said over the coin.

"Where?" Capt. Hathaway asked.

The voice came back, "Back where it came from. There is now only 1 monster on the third floor." Crashing sounds could be heard behind the voice.

Professor Weasley's voice came booming throughout the castle, "All students and staff, clear the hallways. Get into a classroom or dormitory, close the door and stay there until all clear."

The sound of automatic weapons fire came booming through the castle. Everyone's panic just went up two notches, this was now much more real. "Third floor is engaged." Sgt. Davis' voice could barely be heard through the coin over the firing.

"What the bloody hell is that!" Milner asked.

"One of these!" Capt. Hathaway said, pointing at his rifle. They hit the top of a staircase heading down to a side hall which ran toward the Main Hall. As they hit the bottom of the staircase they caught a glimpse of a monster moving down the Main Hall. "There it is! It's huge!" They ran to the junction with the Main Hall and turned the corner in time to see the monster rip a heavy wooden door off of a classroom and bend over to reach inside. Screams could be heard from the classroom. Hathaway dropped low against the far wall and Mitchel low against the near wall. Hathaway opened up with his automatic rifle. The noise was deafening, with the incongruous sound of brass casings tinkling against the stone floor heard between bursts. "Main Hall engaged," he said into his coin. The monster jerked upright and swung around spilling several students out of it's hand across the hall. Mitchel opened up on it. It started to move toward them, the students trying to move out of it's way. It reached down and picked up a girl and kept coming. Hathaway and Mitchel stopped firing to not hit the girl. "Dobby!" Hathaway yelled. Dobby popped into existence next to him.

"Yes Captain?" He looked rather panicked at the monster.

"Get some house elves and pop into those classrooms and pop those students out of there! Now!"

"Yes!" Pop and he was gone.

The monster was almost to Hathaway and Mitchel when Hathaway opened up on one spot on the monster's torso. The monster roared and swiped at Hathaway hitting him on the left side and throwing him across the hall. Then swiped again at Mitchel hitting his rifle and knocking it down the hall. Mitchel pulled out his pistol and emptied the clip into the hole that Hathaway made, then dropped the gun and pulled out his knife. The monster started to raise the girl up and open it's mouth like it was going to eat her. Mitchel ran at it and jumped up against it's torso and stabbed down with both hands into the hole and used his weight to rip down it's abdomen. The monster roared and swiped and hit Mitchel, dropped the girl, Mitchel flew and hit the falling girl and they landed in a heap against the wall.

Hathaway stood up painfully with a compound fracture in his left arm and probably broken left leg. He pulled out his pistol and emptied the clip into the rip left by Mitchel then dropped the gun. The monster started moving slowly toward him. He pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin with his teeth as the monster came up and grabbed him. He screamed and almost fainted as it grabbed him around his body and squeezed his injured arm. It lifted him up towards it's opening mouth, when he threw the grenade down it's throat. It jerked a bit as it swallowed, then spasmed when the grenade went off dropping Hathaway. Hathaway hit the floor hard.

**Sgt. Tesson**

After Sgt. Tesson relayed the information he saw on the map and volunteered to go after the monster in the Main Staircases, he ran to the gear crates and picked up his favorite weapon; his .50 calibre sniper rifle and 2 clips of explosive rounds. "Cauldwin, come on let's hunt some monsters!"

"With what? What is that?" She did not share his confidence or his enthusiasm.

"My favorite toy. Which way to the staircases!"

"Turn right," and they ran out the door and down the hallway. They came out on a landing not far from the bottom of the staircases. Cauldwin noticed up on a staircase leading to the fifth floor was a monster. "Up there!" The castle was moving the staircase every time the monster tried to get off. If it went up the stair would disconnect from the top. If the monster tried to go down, the stair would connect at the top and disconnect at the bottom.

"Got'm!" Tesson said with such intensity. He started loading the rifle. The monster noticed them and roared at them.

"You'd better hurry, it's seen us." Cauldwin said nervously.

Tesson took aim. The monster threw a knife at him. Cauldwin grabbed Tesson and pulled him out of the way. The 'knife' was the size of a sword and it clanged against the platform. Tesson took aim again. "Cover your ears, this is loud." The gun went off with a huge sound, dust rose from the surrounding area like an artillery piece firing. The monster convulsed and slowly fell back onto the stairs.

"Ye gods, what is that!" Cauldwin was crouching down looking at the rifle and covering her ears.

"My personal artillery piece." He reloaded and fired another round into the monster. This time he saw the goo splatter behind it, he'd blown a hole out the back side of it. He touched his coin, "The Main Staircase is secure. Who's got a monster I can kill."

**Lt. Minden**

After she yelled into the coin claiming the monster heading up to the fourth floor she headed out the door with Mr Morrison. "How do we get up there?"

"This way!" Auror Morrison said and ran to the left.

When they reached the top of the stairs onto the fourth floor, the monster was almost to the end of the hall. Minden took aim and fired a few single shots. The sound echoed in the stone hallways, the sound of brass casings tinkling on the stone floor, and the monster ran around the corner.

"What is that!" Morrison gaped at the gun, holding his ears.

"My best friend." Minden said absentmindedly. "Let's move!"

They ran down the hall to the corner to find the monster 10 meters down ripping a classroom door off. Minden crouched low against the wall with Morrison low against the other side. Minden opened up on the monster. It jerked up and roared, picked up the heavy wooden door and held it up as a shield. Minden switched to single shots at the monster's extremities. Every time the monster started to drop the door she would open up again, so it kept the door held up. They started walking toward the monster, Minden still firing.

"I'm going to throw a grenade behind it. Any occupied classrooms down this hall, Morrison?" Minden yelled over the noise.

"I don't think so."

"Jump in this classroom. Go Morrison!" The monster was slowly backing down the hall as they advanced. Minden pulled the pin and threw it past the monster, under the door it was holding. "NOW!" They jumped out of the hall. The grenade went off with a deafening explosion and the monster roared in pain. They ran out into the hall in time to see the monster run unsteadily around the next corner. They ran after it, following the trail of goo.

"The Main Staircase is secure. Who's got a monster I can kill." Tesson said over the coin.

"Hathaway, what's your status?" Minden yelled into her coin. "Hathaway, report!" Nothing. "Davis, report!"

Davis replied over the coin. "We've got a monster pinned down. He seems to be guarding the exit point because he won't move. He's wearing chain mail, which bullets don't work against."

"Then Tesson, come to the fourth floor, it's just me and Morrison up here."

"Roger, on our way." Tesson said.

"Anyone know the status of Hathaway?" Minden asked.

"Captain Hathaway and Sgt. Mitchel are in the infirmary. We are taking care of them." Professor Weasley said over the coin.

"Thank you Professor."

"Lily says the monster in the Main Hall and the one in the Main Staircases are dead, one has gone back, and only two more are left." A student voice said over the coin.

Lt. Minden and Mr. Morrison followed the goo trail up a staircase to the fifth floor, down a side hall, past another intersection to a dead-end hall where the trail stopped. Minden whirled around. "Ooops. We're in trouble."

"Why? Where did it go?" Morrison was confused.

They heard a roar as the monster came out of the side hall they had passed, blocking their exit. "Tesson! We're trapped by the monster on the fifth floor. Hurry!" she yelled into the coin and opened up on the monster. Morrison tried putting up a shield across the hallway but it did not stop the monster. He tried making a fire but there was nothing to burn.

"I've put 2 clips into this thing, hit it with a grenade, and it's only slowed it down. Can you conjure some gasoline?" Minden was still determined.

"What's gasoline?"

"How about boiling oil?"

"That I can!" He held out his wand and out came a stream of boiling oil that hit the monster. It roared and stumbled back then started forward again. They moved back against the end wall, toward the corner. Minden pulled out her pistol and shot at the monster's hand and arm as it tried to swipe them. This slowed it down a lot, but the clip ran out. She pulled out her knife and started swiping at the monster.

"Minden, get down! I've got it sighted." Tesson's voice came over the coin.

Minden grabbed Morrison and fell into the side corner of the end of the hall "We're down!" The noise from the .50 calibre was deafening in the confined stone spaces, particularly being on the target end of it. The monster jerked up, arched it's back, started to turn around and fell back on it's side. Tesson fired again and the monster's head exploded. "You alright, Minden?" Tesson yelled down the hall.

"Yes, we're fine," she yelled back.

"Fifth floor secure. Heading for the third floor." Tesson's voice came out of the coin.

"This is Davis, the monster on the third floor just disappeared and the opening is gone. It's like it knew the other monster died and it ran away." the coin said.

"Yes, Lily says the monsters are gone." The student's voice came out of the coin.

Lt. Minden's voice came through the coins. "All teams, search for any casualties. Secure weapons and locations. Report to the infirmary for check-out and de-brief."

Professor Weasley's voice boomed throughout the castle, "All staff, collect all students and lead them to their common rooms. Please avoid the Main Staircases, the third floor, the fifth floor, and the Main Hall. Report any injuries to me. Go now."

Lt. Minden and Mr. Morrison picked up their gear and headed past the monster, trying not to get more goo on them. The could barely get by the monster and had to jump over it's outstretched arm which blocked the hall. As they passed the third floor scene they saw the wreckage of many classroom doors, tables, pictures, goo, shell casings, and a bloodied student sweater.

When they got to the infirmary it was still quite busy. "Professor Weasley, what's the status?"

"Lt. Minden. Are you OK?" the Professor asked.

"Yes, amazingly. How is everyone else?"

"Captain Hathaway is pretty badly injured. Fractured femur, broken arm and lower leg in several places, crushed vertebrae, concussion. He'll be out for a few more hours yet. But he should be good as new by morning."

"Morning? You're kidding! How?" Lt. Minden was quite confused.

"- Magic?" Professor Weasley had that twinkle in her eye.

"Oh - duh. Of course." She shook her head. "How about the rest."

"Sgt. Mitchel has over 25 broken bones and a concussion, but he should be fine by tomorrow afternoon. Sgt Causwell was injured when the monster on the third floor threw a table leg at her, but she should be fine before dinner. Other than that we have 3 injured staff, 5 injured students, 2 injured Aurors, and one missing student." Professor Weasley said.

"Which Aurors?"

"Cauldwin, and Bartlett again."

General Write came over. "Lt. Minden, good to see you made it without injury."

"Thank you, sir. But we made it with quite a dose of luck."

"I must have heard a different version of that story, because it sounded absolutely amazing to me." The General said.

"I would agree, Lieutenant. Your team has made quite an impact on the Aurors, and quickly the stories will get around. You have thoroughly changed their world-view."

Lt. Minden gave a heavy sigh. "Oh."

"Why the heavy sigh, Lieutenant?" The General asked.

"The weight of _that_ responsibility is heavier than the weight of responsibility for doing the work."

"Ah, yes. It can be. But you have all earned it, Lieutenant. Try and enjoy it. Especially since you are now acting commander, until Captain Hathaway gets back on his feet." The General said quietly.

"Yes, sir."

"De-briefing at noon in the staff room. Johnny, please bring Lily and your crew with you." Professor Weasley said to all through the coin.

**Professor Weasley**

The noise in the staff room was overwhelming. "Quiet! Quiet please!" Professor Weasley was beginning to get their attention. "Today we survived a near disaster in amazingly good shape. Only 10 injuries, though some are serious all will fully recover, no deaths, and only one missing. And a lot of people made that happen." A lot of applause. "That was only 5 monsters. If they come back with more we will not be so fortunate. We are down personnel for a while yet. So it is my decision to evacuate the school." Shock and discussion. "Please! ... Please. We can not risk the students lives any more. I have made arrangements with St. Mungo's, our wizarding hospital, to accept our students until their parents can pick them up. We will begin the evacuation immediately because it will take a significant amount of time. We start immediately after this meeting, starting with the first years and working up. We will use the floo network from the head of Houses offices. We will escort 20 students at a time from their common rooms to the House offices. No students will leave their common rooms until they are ready to floo."

"Professor Weasley." Professor Zelazney interrupted.

"Yes Professor."

"If I may suggest an alternative. During the fight in the Main Hall, my class was right nearby. So close we couldn't get out without running into the monster. Dobby got a number of House Elves to pop into our room and pop students out to safety. It worked amazingly well, and quite speedily."

"Really. That is an excellent idea." Professor Weasley thought for a moment. "Dobby!"

"Yes Headmistress." Dobby popped next to her.

"Did you evacuate students from around the fight in the Main Hall?"

"Yes, and on the third floor, Ma'am. And a few students from the Main Staircases. Captain Hathaway asked me to."

She stood in surprise. "Absolutely excellent, Dobby!" The room cheered.

"Thank you, Headmistress." Dobby looked close to tears and bowed deeply.

"I will have to thank Captain Hathaway, too. A brilliant idea. Could we try that again? We need to move students from their common rooms to the Head of House offices to evacuate them to St. Mungo's."

"Yes, Headmistress. House Elves will help."

"Thank you very much, Dobby. We will start the evacuations after this meeting. Can you stay for the rest of this meeting?" Dobby nodded. "This evacuation will still take a number of hours. General Write, Lt. Minden, will you be able to help defend the castle during that time?"

"Yes, Professor. After this meeting I will be asking for reinforcements. Not only to defend this castle, but to prevent any monster's escape to the wider world."

"How soon do you think you will be ready for that?"

"I think before 3pm we should have the basics set up."

She nodded. "Thank you very much General. Mr. Morrison, any comments or suggestions?"

"No Ma'am. Just let us know how we can help."

"Any questions or suggestions?" Professor Weasley asked of the wider community.

"What about the missing student, James Barrington from Hufflepuf?" Professor Colton looked almost ill.

Professor Weasley thought for a moment, then said quietly, "Do you have any suggestions, Professor?"

He looked quite upset, and after a minute shook his head.

"Then let's get to it." She turned to Dobby and bent down to talk quietly to him. "Dobby, how is your relationship with the communities in the Forbidden Forest?"

"We talk to them."

"Can you warn them of what is coming? Particularly to hide from Her Majesties Military?"

"Yes Headmistress. We will warn them, but they will not believe us."

"Why wouldn't they?"

"They have no idea what the military can do. They do not believe muggles can do anything."

"You know better now, don't you?"

"Yes, we do. We have seen, and we have hints of much more."

"Good. We will talk more, later." He nodded. "Thank you Dobby." He bowed and popped out.

**General Wright and Lt. Minden**

"Lieutenant Minden, are you ready?" General Write asked her after the meeting started breaking up at about 1pm.

"Yes, General. Let's get this ball rolling." They moved toward the door and made their way out and down toward the gates of Hogwarts. As they stepped outside the wards, the General turned on a secure satellite phone and dialed up the head of MI5.

"Sir George, this is General Ian Write. - Yes, hello - Oh, you've heard already. - Yes, we've had quite a time so far. - Yes, we do. We need a lot more help, and this is for our defense as well, sir. - We need 2 more SAS teams - yes, we've taken some injuries - over 50%, but they will recover to full strength in time. Specifically, we need RPGs, .50 calibre sniper rifles for everyone and lots of explosive rounds - A pallet full. - Yes, a pallet _full_. - We also need attack helicopters, anti-tank helicopters - One squadron each. - Yes, sir, I'm quite serious. - Have them set up a staging area 1 mile directly south of my landing area. - By 3pm, sir. - Yes, I'm deadly serious, sir. - Betting my _career_? I'm betting my _grandchildren_! And yours too! _I need that gear now! - _Thank you sir." He turned off the phone.

Lt. Minden cleared her throat. "Well, that sounded exciting."

"Yes. But imagine if we had several hundred of those things popping in to stay, and breed. We could be facing the end of _our_ world."

She swallowed hard. "Yes, sir."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**A Touch To Remember**

By 2pm Lt. Minden, Professor Weasley, General Write, and Aurors Milner and Morrison were surveying the mess in the Main Hall. The blood spots, the body of the monster mostly blocking the hall, the destroyed door, the shell casings everywhere, the goo-covered knife, Mitchel's rifle, Hathaway's and Mitchel's pistols.

Lt. Minden was not looking forward to this. She picked up Captain Hathaway's pistol, covered in blood. "Oh, God. I _hate_ cleaning blood out of a gun. It gets in everything."

Professor Weasley came over and looked at it. She waved her wand, "There, hows that?"

"It's clean! Yes, thank you." She felt like she was whinging and determined to be better. But this was still hard. She always had a hard time _after_ a fight. She took a deep breath trying to calm down.

Professor Weasley asked quietly, "Having a hard time, dear?" Lt. Minden nodded reluctantly. Professor Weasley's expression turned darker and her eyes distant, "I always had a hard time after every battle. It would take hours for me to stop shaking. For a long time I thought there was something wrong with me, but actually, that was one of the few things that was actually right with me." Then she smiled sadly and looked at Lt. Minden.

"I don't understand, that was right?"

"During the fight I was fine. Afterward I would almost fall apart. But that release, that honesty about how I felt, that was what kept me sane in the long run."

"Except if you don't have time between fights."

"Yes. Unfinished business." Professor Weasley had that far-away look.

"When were you involved in that kind of a fight?" Lt. Minded asked.

Professor Weasley sighed. "The last wizarding war, about 80 years ago. It was really a civil war of the nastiest kind. Not unlike occupied Europe during WWII."

"How old were you?"

"All of my student years at Hogwarts, actually. Eleven through 18 years old."

"Oh, God. I can't imagine going through that at 12 or 14."

"No. No one can, unless you have. And then that's all you know; you live the life that's in front of you. But that kind of a life is like an iceberg; much more baggage unseen below the water than is seen above it."

"Yes. Unfinished business." Lt. Minden said heavily, echoing Professor Weasley.

Professor Weasley looked at her closely. "The question becomes, how do you finish it? How do you live again afterwards? And that is the point of surviving the ordeal, to live again."

"How? Life looks very different now."

"Yes, no one escapes undamaged. But you can decide how you want to respond. That's all you have left to you; your choices. And therefore your future. That's not a bad place to start."

Lt. Minden smiled a bit. "Hhhmm, that it could be."

"Good." Professor Weasley smiled at her, then turned. "Are we done here?"

"Yes." General Write said. "Absolutely unbelievable. How Hathaway and Mitchel brought this thing down I just can't imagine."

Morrison looked at Milner. "What happened, Milner?"

Milner looked about to cry. "When we got here the monster was reaching into a classroom and had grabbed some students. Hathaway and Mitchel shot at it and it dropped the students and started for us, Hathaway called Dobby and got him to rescue the students from the classrooms. By that time the monster was close. Hathaway emptied his rifle into the monster in one spot, and the monster knocked him across the hall. The monster hit Mitchel's rifle and knocked it out of his hands down the hall. Mitchel took out his pistol and emptied it into the hole. The Monster grabbed a student and lifted her toward it's mouth to eat her so Mitchel ran up to it and stabbed it with his knife. The Monster knocked Mitchel into the girl and they both landed against the wall. Then Hathaway got up, emptied his pistol into it, then he took out a grenade." Her voice broke as she tried to continue. " - he just stood there waiting for the monster - then the monster grabbed him and lifted him to it's mouth to eat him and he threw the grenade down the monsters throat and it killed the monster." She paused, regaining her composure.

"I've never seen anything like it." Auror Milner said with her voice still cracking. "They just kept walking into it and would not back down, regardless of what it cost them. Without them we would have lost a lot of students today."

"That's exactly what I saw." Morrison was looking at Lt. Minden.

Lt. Minden did not trust her voice, so she nodded her head and looked down.

Everyone paused a moment. "Let's take a look at the Main Staircases." Professor Weasley said and started walking down the hall.

When they got to the bottom of the fifth floor stair there was a rivulet of goo running down the stairs puddling on the landing. The body of the monster was halfway up the stairs with 3 holes in it and goo splattered against the far side railing.

"What was it that Tesson used on this one?" Auror Milner asked.

"A .50 calibre sniper rifle with explosive rounds." General Write said. "It worked very well. I've ordered one for every SAS team member." He walked over and picked up a shell casing and showed it to the Aurors. "It's a bit bigger that the other weapons."

"No wonder I could hear it on the other end of the castle." Morrison looked impressed.

"It's a good thing it works so well, otherwise I wouldn't use it." Lt. Minden said.

"Why not?" Professor Weasley asked.

"It bruises my shoulder. After firing about the third round it starts to hurt. About the sixth round and it hurts like hell."

"Hmm. Let me think. Maybe I can do something about that." Professor Weasley said.

"You would make a lot SAS teams very happy." General Write said.

"Ok, off to the fifth floor?" Professor Weasley prompted. Then everyone headed down the hall to where that fight started on the fourth floor.

"It started here, where we first saw the monster running down this hall. Lt. Minden shot it a few times, then it turned down that hall." Mr Morrison said and moved down to the corner. "When we got to this point we looked down and saw it ripping the door off and Lt. Minden shot it many times. But it picked up the big door and used it as a shield. Then she threw a grenade - is that what it was? - behind the monster and the door it was holding. That's when it started leaving that trail of goo." They walked down the halls following the goo to the stairs up to the fifth floor. As they got to the dead-end hall Mr Morrison got confused. "Was this where the monster was hiding? This side hall?"

"Yes, it had run down to the dead end, backtracked on it's trail of goo and then must have jumped down that side hall so it wouldn't leave a trail and waited for us. These things are smarter than I thought." Lt. Minden looked rather angry. "See, there's more goo down there and I missed it."

Mr Morrison huffed. "I wasn't even looking. When we got to the dead end the monster came out and we were stuck. I put a shield across the hall, that didn't stop it, I even shot boiling oil on it, at Lt. Minden's suggestion, and it didn't slow it down."

"I emptied 2 clips from my rifle into it, the grenade, and the clip from my pistol and it only slowed it down a bit. Then, luckily, Tesson showed up with his cannon just in time." Lt. Minden said quietly.

General Write sighed. "Lieutenant, now I understand why you said we were very lucky. The castle is too small of a space for us to be fighting monsters of this size. We can't use anti-tank weapons in here."

"Yes, it's a small space, but it's even harder on the monsters than for us." Professor Weasley said.

"Yes, I guess so. Professor, how are you going to get these monsters out of here? Ah - don't tell me, magic?" The General looked chagrined.

"Yes, quite. It should take our caretaker about 10 minutes and you wouldn't know anything happened." Professor Weasley said with obvious relish.

He just shook his head and started down the hall, then stopped and turned. "The new SAS teams should be arriving soon. I assume you'd like to meet them. Should we go?"

"Yes, that would be good. I don't think we have a lot of time to waste." Professor Weasley started down the hall with everyone else. "Who all is coming, General?"

"I have 2 SAS teams and 2 squadrons of helicopters coming."

"I will need to meet the helicopter pilots to allow them to see the castle and to fly within the surrounding airspace."

"Oh, glad I mentioned it. That would not have worked well." The General said with a grin.

"Professor Weasley, you seem to know a lot about the muggle world. How did you manage that?" Auror Milner asked.

"After the last war I spent a few years studying at muggle universities and I was muggle-born to begin with so it was pretty easy for me."

"I feel this whole situation is quite an unsettling experience for me. It's turning my whole world upside down. I feel so helpless and so useless in the face of these monsters." Auror Milner just shook her head.

General Write nodded. "I must agree. It is all quite confusing. I knew of the existence of the magical world, I've read the reports, but I've had no interactions with it. So to see all this - the castle, the monsters - it's been quite an experience."

Professor Weasley had a satisfied smile. "Yes, I do think we are heading into a time of great change."

**Professor Weasley**

It was 3pm as the group stood beside Hogwarts gates the large double-rotored helicopter came in for a landing. The wind started whipping the trees around and kicking the leaves up but it did not touch the group. The large tail ramp dropped down and 12 people walked out dragging large crates. The huge helicopter rose up in the air with a giant gust of wind and a roar. A man came walking over and saluted General Write. "General Write, Captain Carmichael reporting." Another man came over. "And this is Captain Holms." Captain Holms saluted.

General Write returned the salutes. "This is Hermione Weasley, Headmistress of the school, Lieutenant Minden SAS Team 1, and this is Mr Morrison and Ms Milner, they are the magical equivalent of policemen." Handshakes all around. "We need to introduce all of your people to Professor Weasley."

The process took a while, but was finally done. Then Professor Weasley spoke to the group. "Thank you all for coming. We desperately need your help. If you would all now turn around and see the school you are here to help protect." Gasps, murmurs, and colourful comments. "Mr. Morrison, if you would be so good as to help them with their gear and show them to the rooms to the right of yours. I need to meet with the helicopter pilots."

"Yes, Professor." Morrison wiggled a stick and all the crates lifted up and everyone gasped again. "OK everyone, your gear will follow you so follow me and let me be your tour guide to your rooms."

Professor Weasley looked at General Write. "I could pop us over to the staging area, but I don't think it would be a good idea to surprise them, do you?"

General Write turned to the Professor. "No, I don't think so. I'll call them for a helicopter. Have you ridden in one before?"

"No, I haven't. But I've done one better; I ride on a broom." She smiled.

The General snickered. "That's not fair." He pulled out his radio and called the staging area. The helicopter was there in 10 minutes. In a another 10 they were on the ground talking to 12 pilots and 12 gunners.

Professor Weasley addressed them all. "Ladies and gentlemen, I've asked General Write if I could give you all an air tour of the school and it's surrounding areas. You need to be aware of some of the safety issues about our school. Are we ready, General?"

"Everyone into one of those two helicopters and well see some amazing sights." The General lead the way and everyone was on board in a few minutes.

Professor Weasley was in the left seat of the lead helicopter wearing a headset to talk to everyone. "This area to the north of your staging area is a little community called Hogsmead. People live there so this is one of the higher priority areas if anything should escape the school grounds. Up ahead and to the right you can see the school. This is where all the attacks have been happening, but there is no reason that attacks can not happen anywhere else around here. Luckily, the attackers are the size of elephants so they are pretty easy to spot. To the left of the school is the Forbidden Forrest. It is named that because a lot of dangerous magical creatures live there and you do not want to land in there. If for some reason you have to, stay with your helicopter, if possible. The lake is also not a safe place to be for similar reasons. The open grounds around the school are normally quite safe. Be aware that the school will not show up on your radar. Also, all electronic systems will not function when you are too close to the school. That means no radios, GPS maps, night-vision goggles, targeting systems, and worst of all, your fly-by-wire systems will stop working within 300 meters of the school, horizontal or vertical. Do no get any closer or you will crash. You can shoot into that 300 meter area but do not fly there. Please remember that we have over 600 students from 11 years old to 17 years old currently in the school. We are in the process of evacuating them but this will take more time. Any Questions?"

"Professor, what do these monsters look like?" a voice over the intercom asked.

"The only ones we have seen are 16 feet tall, their head sits low in their shoulders, short legs, huge barrel torso, long arms, hands have only 3 digits, long claws and teeth. They wear medieval style clothes, like chain mail, swords, axes, gauntlets, and the like. I would imagine they could throw a rock and hit a helicopter. They are very difficult to kill."

General Write said, "Lieutenant Minden shot 2 clips of rifle fire into one, a clip of pistol fire, and a grenade next to one and it only slowed the monster down. The only thing we have seen that actually kills them is the .50 calibre explosive round or getting them to swallow a grenade."

"Pistols seem to be effective at close range against their hands, but let's hope no one gets that close again." Professor Weasley said.

The General said, "The important thing to remember is the perimeter of National Security Area 326. Do not let any monsters get out of the area all all costs. Once you see them you will know why, but let me state it clearly. If any monsters were to escape and then start breeding, humanity could be in danger. Anything else?" Silence. "Then lets wrap it up." The helicopters headed back to the staging area.

Professor Weasley handed the Staging Area Officer a coin, a map, and 24 coins and port-keys and explained their function to everyone.

"Are you ready to go back, General?" Professor Weasley asked with a rather large smile.

"Yes, I'll call the helicopter."

"No need. I'll handle it." She quickly grabbed his arm and apparated, leaving behind a lot of gasps.

The General fell over into the soft grass next to the gate of Hogwarts. "Ah! What was that!? – How did we get here?"

"It's called apparating. It's a bit more convenient, don't you think?" She asked sweetly. "And faster. No smelly fumes from those loud whirly-things?"

He gave her a dark look, then started to smile, and got up from the ground. "I think I'm beginning to understand why _you_ are in charge of that school."

She smiled, "Shall we get back before something explodes?" They headed up to the castle.

Professor Weasley's coin broke in, "Professor Weasley, the Minister of Magic is waiting in your office."

She touched the coin. "On my way." She turned to the General, "Would you like to meet the Minister?"

He looked concerned. "Well, I don't want to cause you difficulty. But I admit it would be interesting."

"I think it will be most entertaining, myself. Let's go see what trouble he's gotten himself into, shall we?" They walked through a very clean and very empty castle all the way up to Professor Weasley's office. On the way they collected Mr Morrison, Professor Colton, and Professor Trillaby. Professor Weasley lead the way into her office and found the Minister of Magic pacing in front of the fireplace.

Immediately he pounced. "Professor Weasley how could you possibly have allowed this to happen! What were you thinking! This is absolutely unacceptable! You must -" The sound of a helicopter buzzing the castle came loudly through the high windows. "What is that!" The minister looked afraid. "You called them, didn't you! Why did you call those stupid muggles! Get rid of them, now!"

General Write stepped forward, hand extended with a rather severe smile on his face, his voice a bit harsh, "Good Morning, I am General Ian Write of Her Majesty's Military Service, your resident muggle and commanding officer of the troops here." His tone darkened. "If you have a problem with that you need to talk to _me_ about it."

The Minister ignored General Write and looked at Professor Weasley, "You called them here?"

Professor Weasley looked coldly at the Minister. "They invoked the security provisions in the Covenant. Are you intending to break the Covenant?"

The Minister turned white. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were _unavailable_ - since Sunday. Today is Tuesday. Your office could not contact you. Do you have difficulty managing your office? Do you think you need to step down, Minister?"

The Minister turned even whiter and started to shake. "No! I am fine."

General Write's tone went cold. "I am here at Her Majesty's request, taking care of an issue that you failed to handle. You are endangering the Covenant. Stay out of my way." With a lingering glare, he slowly turned and walked out, soon followed by everyone in the room, except Mr Morrison. Mr Morrison walked casually toward the Minister with his hands in his pockets.

The Minister asked crossly. "Who are you?"

"Morrison. Leader of the Auror team here. The muggles saved our asses this morning. They did what we couldn't do, they killed the monsters. Don't disparage the muggles. I've seen more courage today than I've seen in a long time." He turned and walked out.

**Lily Weasley**

Nurse Mason looked up from her desk at Lily and Johnny. "You're done with all that already?"

"Yes, Ma'am. It's all cleaned up." Johnny said. The sound of a helicopter flying low overhead was so out of character for Hogwarts and Nurse Mason was definitely not used to it as she cringed and glanced up at the sound.

"Well, that's all I have that you can help with right now. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something more. You should go back to your House Common rooms with everyone else."

Johnny sighed. "Yes, Ma'am." Nurse Mason looked at him with a questioning look. He looked apologetic. "Everyone is going a little crazy confined to our houses."

"Yes, I imagine. But it shouldn't be too much longer before the evacuation catches up to you and you will be free, and safe."

Lily didn't look convinced. "Somehow," She shook her head. " - I don't know."

"Well, thank you, Lily and Johnny. Hurry back to your common rooms." Nurse mason said. Having no more excuses to stay, they left.

Lily and Johnny stepped out of the stairs up onto the sixth floor on their way back to Gryfindor common room, trying to avoid all the previous locations where monsters have appeared. The halls were completely empty except for Auror and SAS patrols since the evacuation had started. They had a little over 2 hours before dinner would be served in their common rooms at six. They were about 10 steps down the hall when Lily said "There here! And again! And another place!" A distant set of klaxon's went off, a loud pop behind them and Lily screamed. A monster was standing right behind her. She spun around and swung her hand in an arc like she was doing some graceful dance or karate. Extending from her hand was what looked like a white light that had a form like a very large blade. It swept through the monster's arm slicing it off. She continued her spin kicking out her leg in a similar arc with another white light from it and sliced the monster. A second and third monster were crowding the hall trying to attack.

"Three monsters on the sixth floor!" Johnny yelled into his coin.

"Three in the Main Hall!" someone yelled out of the coin. The boom of muggle weapons echoed through the castle. A klaxon started above Lily.

"Perimeter defense, on alert!" The General's voice came out of the coin.

Professor Weasley's voice boomed through the castle, "All students clear the halls, now!"

Johnny jumped to the left, on the same side of the hall as Lily as she continued to spin and finish off the first monster. The other 2 seemed to go crazy after her. The third ripped a classroom door off and started using it as a shield but Lily swept right through it. "Three on the third floor!" Johnny's coin said. The second monster started to swing it's mace at Lily and would have hit her if Johnny hadn't reached out, grabbed her robes, and pulled her back a few feet. She then swiped at the chain cutting the weapon. The second started swinging the bar and chain like a whip and the third grabbed Johnny around the waist and lifted him off the ground. Lily dove into the second, inside the arc of the chain and sliced the monster up the middle and it died in a heap of parts. Johnny yelled as the monster started to squeeze him as Lily spun into the third monster. It swiped at her with it's claw. She sliced off the hand as she was slicing up the middle of the monster, but could not get out of the way and the hand hit her and knocked her down. She struggled to push the huge severed hand off her and get up. Johnny had to push hard to open the dead monster's hand.

Lily stood, breathing hard and looking at the monsters. Ragged sobs shook her as she started to shake. "No! No, they've found me. Not again." Her voice was desolation.

"Lily, are you alright?" Johnny had gotten up and came over to her, putting his arms around her.

"I remember now. I can't let this happen. Not to you." She started to gather her focus.

"The Main Staircase has three! Fifth floor!" Someone yelled through the coin. More booms.

Lily grabbed Johnny and started toward the Main Staircases. "We have to stop them!" Lily looked frantic and determined.

As they reached the Main Staircases on the sixth level someone yelled through the coins, "The Main Hall monsters are moving! They are moving toward the Main Stairs."

"So are the ones on the third floor!" another voice in the coins said.

"They feel me here." Lily said quietly. "They're coming for me." She looked at Johnny, "Tell everyone to head for the Main Stairs."

"Lily says the monsters are all heading for the Main Stairs." He turned back to her as she moved down the hall. "Why? What do they want?" She just kept going. She ran to the edge and looked over.

They looked down at the shifting stairs and saw three monsters on the fifth level, three monsters came out of the third level, and two more came out from the Main Hall. They all looked up at Lily. They roared, shook their weapons at her and started up the stairs. Lily and Johnny's staircase started moving away from the monsters on the fifth floor landing. Lily started down the stairs. All the rest of the staircases started shifting. "Lily! Where are you going!?" Johnny was beside himself.

She turned and looked up at him with a hard determined look, tears still staining her face. She pointed at him and said "you stay there!" and then continued going down. He started down after her. There were several huge booms as SAS teams started shooting their sniper rifles at the monsters. An explosive round hit a stair railing on the third-to-fourth stairs and broke it into chunks. A monster picked up the head-sized rocks and threw them at the third floor SAS team and hit two people. "Move this staircase back!" Lily yelled. The stairs stopped and started moving back. The fifth floor monsters started to roar and swing their weapons.

A noise started up down below. "Three more monsters came from the dungeons!" Someone said in the coins. The booms were constant now. Lily stopped half way down the stairs waiting for it to connect to the fifth level.

Johnny caught up to her "What are you doing!?"

"They're here for me! I have to stop this or they'll kill you all. Get back up the stairs!" She started to crouch as the monsters started trying to jump to the stairs as they were about to connect.

The three huge monsters started running up the stairs, shaking them so hard it was difficult to maintain footing. They filled the wide stairs and completely dwarfed Lily. She spun to the side of the first monster who was reaching for her, staying farthest away from the second. Whirling, she cut the first one into chunks and the parts fell onto the second monster. A chunk of stair railing thrown from below hit the right side railing and broke it into chunks. Johnny used his magic and picked up a chunk and threw it at the third monster as Lily dodged under a swing by the second and started slicing it up. The rock hit the third monster and only distracted it, but enough for Lily to slice open it's overly-large abdomen. It then fell through the hole in the railing and fell onto the the second floor landing.

"Clear the dungeon area, grenades!" A voice came out of the coins. A huge set of explosions rang out from somewhere far below.

Lily ran to the fifth floor and yelled something unintelligible. She ran toward the hallway, was washed in an orange light, and disappeared before reaching the hallway. "Lily!" Johnny frantically started running down the stairs but had a hard time getting around the monster chunks. As he got to the landing he saw the fifth floor hallway disappear and saw a hole to another world, with rocks, orange sunshine, arid scrub bushes, and at least five monsters, one holding what might be a student. Lily attacked the monsters as they ran toward her. She had to dodge several times as they swung maces, axes, or a staff. She drew them apart and finished them off, leaving the one holding the human. As she got closer the human screamed. It became a stalemate with the monster threatening to crush the human. Johnny magically picked up a chunk of rock and flung it at the monster, hitting it on the shoulder. It didn't see it coming so it was quite surprised, enough for Lily to move in and cut off the arm holding the human. A few twirls and the monster was dead. Lily helped the human back to the fifth floor landing. It was Barrington, the fifth year Hufflepuff who was captured a week ago. He did not look good. As Lily and Barrington stepped out of the other world the whole closed up with a very loud bang. Another huge explosion from somewhere below and more booms of rifle fire.

"Get him to the infirmary, now!" She said and started down toward the fourth floor.

Barrington was laying on the floor, barely conscious. Johnny pulled out his portkey, laid it on Barrington's neck, moved away and said "jellyroll". Barrington popped out. He then started down the stairs after Lily. They had to pick their way around three dead monsters and slippery goo puddles. By the time they were approaching the third floor landing several SAS and Aurors were climbing up from the second floor.

"They're gone. The last gateway just closed." Lily said.

The SAS leader, Captain Carmichael said "will they come back again soon?"

"Not for a while, it takes too much energy to open those gateways for them to do it too often." Lily said.

Captain Carmichael said into his coin, "General, Lily says the monsters are gone. All teams, status report. Team 1, go."

"Team 1, 1 Auror injured. Milner. In the infirmary." Lt. Minden said.

"Team 2, report." Captain Carmichael barked.

"Team 2 has 3 injured. Two SAS and one Auror. All in the infirmary."

Captain Carmichael looked relieved. "All Teams, secure weapons, search for injured, and report to the infirmary for check-out and debrief."

**Professor Weasley**

The infirmary was still a mad house by the time most of the SAS and Auror teams came in. Several staff and some of the more advanced students were working on the various people who were caught up in the attack. Professor Weasley was acting as triage nurse, determining the severity and order of treatment for all incoming patients. Some of the last to walk in were Johnny and Lily.

"Lily, Johnny! How are you?" Professor Weasley asked. She tried to use a cleaning spell on them, but it only worked on Johnny. "Oh, I forgot magic doesn't work on you Lily. Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I don't know, some small cuts and bruises, maybe." She looked tired and distracted.

"Is there something else wrong, dear?"

She hesitated, then looked down and she closed her eyes. She sighed deeply and then looked at Professor Weasley. "I remember. Too much." She turned away.

"Mmmm. That can be very incapacitating. Come sit over here. I have something that can help with that. A secret potion that works wonders." The Professor handed Lily a cup of hot chocolate. "Here, this will help."

Lily took a sip and just about melted into her reclining chair. "Oh, Professor, that is wonderful!" She just sat there, eyes closed, melting, sipping slowly.

Professor Weasley looked at Johnny and put her finger to her lips. She watched closely as Lily drifted off and caught the cup before it could spill.

"I thought Lily wasn't affected by magic, Professor." Johnny looked confused.

"This is the strongest magic known to humanity. It's called 'hot chocolate'."

Johnny gave a soft short bark of laughter. "Ah, yes. I understand now."

Professor Weasley had a gentle smile. "And if she's never had it before she could be particularly susceptible." They both watched Lily sleeping for a moment. "Johnny, did Lily say anything about what she remembered?"

"Nothing directly, but I think she thought the monsters were here to capture her. And they did seem to react to her."

"How so?" Professor Weasley asked.

"When she first got to the top of the Main Staircase we looked over the railing. A lot of monsters came into the staircase, looked up, and roared at her, then started up the stairs. They seemed to know her. But she sliced through those monsters like butter."

"'Sliced through'? What do you mean?"

"On the sixth floor three monsters appeared right behind her. She swept her hands and feet around gracefully like some sort of martial art and a bright light extended from them and cut clear through the monsters like they were butter. It was unbelievably messy, but very effective. I think she killed eleven monsters all by herself."

"I don't understand. That doesn't add up right. She killed eleven of the fifteen?"

"Well, there were the three on the sixth floor. On the fifth-to-sixth floor staircase were three more. On the fifth floor landing was a gateway to another world and she ran into the gateway, killed 5 monsters, and rescued Barrington. I wasn't able to help at all, except pop Barrington to the infirmary."

"Absolutely amazing. No wonder she's tired. We'll let her rest for now, but I'm afraid we'll have to wake her for the de-briefing." Professor Weasley looked at Johnny who nodded. "Um, Johnny?"

"Yes, Professor?"

"What happened here?" She pointed at his left shoulder blade. The fabric was torn and a cut ran across and down his back.

"Oh, I didn't see that. Must have been when that monster grabbed me."

"So, you 'weren't able to help at all', is that it? Sounds like there's a story in there somewhere." Professor Weasley had a sly smile and a twinkle in her eye. She ran her wand along the cut, cleaned it, and sealed it.

In about 30 minutes the injured in the infirmary were stable enough to allow everyone to attend the de-briefing in the staff room. Johnny and the other students had left to forage for food.

"Lily dear, it's time to wake up." Professor Weasley said gently. Lily stirred, started to struggle then shot up with her arms out and eyes blinking. She stopped and looked around with the edge of panic tainting her features. She groaned, laid back down covering her face with her hands, panting slightly. "I'm sorry to wake you dear, but we're about to have our briefing and I think it's important that you be there."

"Professor, I need to leave here. Now."

"Why is that dear?"

"Because I remember who I am. You are in danger - your entire _world_ is in danger as long as I am here. I need to find another reality and go there as soon as I can."

"Why is that dear?"

"No - look Professor, I am not the person you think I am! Those monsters are here after me! They will not leave until they catch me. They will invade your world until they catch me. I can not stay here and you can't protect me!"

"Why not dear?"

"Because it's happened before! Many, many times." Her voice started to crack, tears started up. "They have been chasing me for as long as I can remember, through countless realities. So many languages, peoples, cultures." She drifted away in anguished thought.

"You look very young for such a long story."

She came part way back. "It's a side-effect of traveling through the gateways so much. It really slows down my aging." She came back focused on the Professor. "The last reality I was in, the one they are coming from, the monsters invaded and completely destroyed it."

"It never works to run away from problems dear, you need to run towards them. Why do they want you?"

"They want – what I am. They want my magic, the power, the quality of it. They want me to be their slave, and through me enslave civilizations. I can not let that happen."

"Why are you alone in this dear?"

"I lost my people, my family. I got separated when I was younger - well, I don't look any older now, but it was a long time ago. I don't know how to find them." Her head dropped in to her hands. Despair covered her. "They will not stop. They have never stopped. They keep chasing me everywhere I try to hide. I don't think I can do this any more." Her face began to crumple into quiet sobs.

"Lily, you don't have to carry this all by yourself. This is our world too. We will do what we can to help you, and ourselves."

"But this isn't your fault. This is my fault. I brought them here."

"This is not your fault. You are just trying to stay alive. This is the monster's fault. They decided to chase you and destroy worlds. You are not responsible for their decisions."

"But if I don't leave, they will invade. That makes it my fault."

"No, it does not. If you decided to leave, it might mean they won't attack, but you are not invading, the monsters are."

"What am I responsible for?" Lily practically whispered.

"For your own choices. And nothing more."

"If I decide to stay, they will invade. If I decide to go, they won't invade. It's my fault. Everywhere I go I'm blamed for the monsters."

"What are your intentions? If you decided to stay, are you intending to inflict the monsters on us?"

"No. I'm just running out of time to figure out where to run."

"If you decided to go, are you intending to inflict the monsters on someone else?"

"No! I'm just trying to stay alive."

"If you decided to stay, does that take away the monster's choice as to whether they will invade or not? They are still making a decision to invade, aren't they?"

"Yes."

"You can take secondary affects of your decisions into consideration, but you are not responsible for the decisions that the monsters make. Only they are. And I would suggest to you that always trying to second-guess what someone else will do based on your decisions will drive you crazy."

"But what should I do?" Anxiety was embedded in Lily's expression.

"I'm afraid that decision is yours alone. But I can assure you that we will defend ourselves against the monsters, and we are not helpless." Lily looked overburdened. "Shall we go to the meeting?" Lily sighed and got up. Professor Weasley put her arm around Lily and they started walking to the staff room.

The staff room was full to overflowing with SAS teams, Aurors, staff, Lily, Johnny, Jamison, Amanda, and Geary. The room was quiet, as if covered by a heavy blanket. Professor Weasley walked to the front and Lily joined the other students to the side. "Are we ready? Then let's start with what happened and then move to what's next. Shall we start with the teams? Team 1, what happened?"

Captain Hathaway was at the meeting, listening to Lt. Minden who started explaining. "We heard the klaxons and started toward the sounds. The monsters weren't hard to find. We found three of them in the Main Hall. Auror Milner was hit by a big chunk of thrown door that bounced off the wall opposite her position. The explosive rounds are amazingly effective when the monsters are so constrained in the hallways. We got 5 monsters total, one in the Main Hall and four in the Main Stairway."

"Captain Holms, your perspective?"

"We engaged the monsters on the third floor. But they started moving to the Main Staircase as soon as we got there. We had one shot hit the stone railing on the staircase the monsters were climbing. It broke the railing into big chunks which a monster threw at us. Those chunks took out two of my SAS and one Auror and destroyed one sniper rifle. If the monsters had more things to throw we'd be in deep trouble. Nurse Mason says they'll be fine in a day or so. And given how badly they were injured, that boggles the mind. We are all very grateful." Applause from everyone, especially the muggles.

"Captain Carmichael?" Professor Weasley nodded at him.

"Let's not forget that Holms' team killed two monsters, in spite of their injuries. Team 2 was on a tour of the castle at the time, on the second floor. When we heard the klaxons we ran toward the Main Stairs because we couldn't tell where they were. Just after we got there three more monsters came up from the dungeons. What Lt. Minden didn't mention was that her team spent a good amount of time dodging our grenades we threw down on the monsters. Our count was 3 monsters with no injuries."

"Excellent. General Write, any comments?"

"An excellent job, all of you. And I mean everyone. I amazed at how well everyone is working together. Thank you all." Applause from the group. "The perimeter defense is now complete. They were on alert during the latest fight but nothing got outside the castle. But I have a question. I only count 9 out of the fifteen monsters killed. What happened to the rest?"

"You counted correctly, General. That story belongs to Lily and Johnny. Lily?" Professor Weasley looked to the students.

Lily looked uncomfortable. "They attacked us. We ... dealt with it."

Johnny smiled. "We were on the sixth floor coming back from the infirmary when Lily felt the monsters open their gateways. Then one opened right behind us with three monsters. Lily used these graceful moves like a martial arts style with white lights extending from her hands and feet which acted like giant blades and sliced the monsters clear through. Very cool but, God it smelled bad! And messy!"

"Don't forget you saved my life from that mace." Lily said.

"Yes, and you saved me when that monster grabbed me. I didn't even notice the cut until Professor Weasley noticed it in the infirmary."

"You got cut? Where?" Lily asked. She squeaked when she saw his ripped clothes.

"Then we went to the Main Stairs. It was weird, a bunch of monsters came out onto the stairs, looked up at Lily and roared at her and started up."

"Why was that?" The General asked.

"We'll get to that in a minute. Continue, Johnny." Professor Weasley redirected the discussion.

"There were three monsters on the fifth floor landing. The castle had moved the staircase so they couldn't get to us but Lily started down and told the castle to move it back. Lily sliced through them and kept going down. On the fifth floor landing there was a gateway to another world with orange sunlight, desert, and rocks. Lily ran into the gateway because there were five monsters holding Barrington, the student captured a week ago. She killed the monsters and got Barrington out. By the time we got down to the third floor the monsters were all gone." Murmurs ran through the room.

"Lily, would you like to tell us what you remember? Remember that you are not responsible for the monsters." Professor Weasley smiled at her.

Lily still looked nervous. "When the monsters attacked on the sixth floor I got my memories back." She paused. "The monsters have been chasing me through countless realities for almost as long as I can remember. I don't look very old because going through the gateways so often changes the way I age. I got lost from my people, who as a group would not be threatened by the monsters, and I've been running ever since. The monsters have invaded many, many realities and destroyed them in their search for me. They will invade here too as long as I am still here."

Lily's friends looked shocked, Johnny especially. "No, you can't leave," he whispered.

"Why do they want you, Lily?" The General asked.

"My magic. It has unique qualities that they can use to enslave civilizations. I can not let that happen."

"Can we help you find your people?" Professor Lombard asked.

"I don't know how." Lily looked forlorn.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I suggest we prepare for an invasion. Please speed up the evacuation using all means, Professor Colton. General you might want to notify the Prime Minster's office and check your perimeter again. If the invasion begins, I doubt it will happen inside the castle so teams should evaluate defensive positions on the rooftops and exterior windows." Professor Weasley looked around at all the deeply shocked faces. "Any questions?"

"How can we fight them? Our magic is useless!" Mr Morrison was not happy.

"Aurors, may I suggest going out to the grounds and start collecting piles of large rocks you can hit the monsters with. Logs. Anything like that. Outside the castle we can use fire much more effectively."

Lily spoke up. "The gateway leaves a residue on the monsters that interferes with your magic. With a mass of monsters coming through a gateway the residue may not be as effective. Also, the residue fades over time so your magic would eventually become effective against them, but that may take too long."

"General? Any suggestions?" Professor Weasley asked.

"Gads! We can't nuke the Scottish Highlands." He paused. "We could if we had to." He said quietly.

"Shoot it through the gateway, then close the gateway," Geary said with a sly smile.

The General looked up and smiled. "Hhhmmm. Any ideas how to close the gateway? Lily?"

"I might be able to for a little while. Not very long."

"I'll start the wheels rolling and see what we can come up with." The General said.

"What's a nuke?" several people were asking.

"A nuclear device. A bomb that is equivalent to 20 thousand tons of explosives. It would obliterate everything within a 5 mile radius, depending on burst altitude." Everyone was shocked, even more so that this came from Professor Weasley.

"Is that correct, General?" Professor Colton was aghast.

"Yes, though they come in many sizes ranging from 1 kiloton to over 10 megatons. Twenty kilotons sounds about right to me. We can get those as artillery rounds to shoot through the gateway."

Several Professors almost fell off their chairs. Professor Weasley said, "Anything else? Then let's get to it."

**Lily Weasley**

As they were walking out of the staff room, Professor Weasley turned to Lily. "Lily, do you remember the importance of those bracelets we found in Knockturn Alley?"

"Oh, yes, I forgot! Again. Or I re-forgot? Anyway, I lost those a long time ago. They help me control my magic and make gateways. They are the only things from my family that I have left."

"Good. Let's go get them from my office."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**A New D-Day**

Lily leaped out of bed and a sound sleep in the almost dark of just after dawn. "There here! It's started. Professor!" She ran to the wardrobe and through the passage to Professor Weasley's office. A very large klaxon went off. "Professor! The invasion has started!" A strange sound, like a giant lawn mower, echoed off the surrounding hills. Professor Weasley came into her office as her coin broke in.

"General Write, Squadron 2 reports 50 monsters on the school grounds! Growing fast".

"Staging, this is General Write. Get everything in the air, now! SAS Teams, man your rooftop positions!"

"Lily, go get dressed and I'll meet you there in a minute." Lily ran back down the passage. The sound of that lawn mower still sputtering.

Professor Weasley got dressed, thinking about the next steps in defending the castle.

**Lt. Newbury**

Lieutenant Newbury was flying his attack helicopter at 1500 feet above ground level in lazy circles when he noticed that the front lawn of the castle turned a dark brown in a spreading stain. He was flying in the sunlight while the ground was still in shadow because of the sunrise. He dove down to one side of the castle to get below the minimum safe altitude of 1100 feet directly above the castle so he could see. There, below the level of the sunlight he saw a frightening sight; monsters. Lots of monsters spreading out in all directions.

"Staging! This is Gonzo! Monsters on the school grounds. 50 at least, soon to be hundreds!"

He went weapons hot and opened up with his 20mm gattling gun. As he was relatively low altitude his low firing angle cut though many monsters before ricocheting off into the sky.

"Gonzo, this is Jumpy, I'll stay high." His wingman just came back from refueling and stayed at higher altitude.

"Roger Jumpy, I'm coming up." He started to lift the cyclic and pour on the power when a monster threw a rock at him. He swerved but it hit the outer edge of a rotor blade. The rotor disk became unbalanced and flew apart, bits flying everywhere, his cockpit spinning down toward the ground. "Jellyroll!"

Lieutenant Newbury, callsign Gonzo, landed on a hard stone floor with a thud against his helmet. A second later the sound of a distant explosion, followed by a lot of secondary explosions. He breathed a huge sigh as he realized that was the sound of his helicopter exploding. He touched the coin on his suit and said, "Gonzo is now safe in the infirmary, sans helicopter."

"Gonzo! You bum, don't scare me like that!" Jumpy was living up to his callsign.

"Gonzo this is Staging! Get up on top of that castle, you're now the Forward Air Controller. Report when on station."

"Gonzo, roger."

**Professor Weasley**

Professor Weasley came out of the passage into Lily's room and saw her waiting. "We'd better head to the infirmary first, they already have customers."

"Already?!"

"Yes, did you year that huge explosion?" Lily nodded. "That was a helicopter crashing. Let's go."

As they walked into the infirmary Lieutenant Newbury was talking to Nurse Mason who was trying to explain to him how to get to the Astronomy Tower. It wasn't working well. "Ah - Professor Weasley! This man needs to go to the Astronomy Tower to be the future weather control -"

" - Forward Air Controller - "

" - for the heli-things outside." She waved her hand vaguely.

Professor Weasley chuckled at Nurse Mason, and then chuckled a second time at the smile on Lieutenant Newbury's face as he watched Nurse Mason. "Thank you Nurse, I'll handle it. Lieutenant Newbury, isn't it?"

"Yes, can you explain the directions? I didn't get the tour of this place."

"I'll get you a guide." She touched the coin. "Johnny, report to the infirmary." Before she had finished her sentence Johnny, Jamison, Geary, and Amanda walked in the door. "Prefect timing. Geary, can you take Lieutenant Newbury here to the Astronomy Tower? He is the Forward Air Controller for the helicopters outside."

"Yes. Very cool! Come on, let's go." They ran out the door.

Lily wandered over to the windows. Nurse Mason came back and asked, "Professor, what is that noise? It sounds - there, that one! - the brrrrt - what is it?"

"Those are the guns on the helicopters shooting the monsters. They are quite effective."

"Oh, do they -" A klaxon went off.

"The castle's been breached." Professor Weasley said. She touched her coin. "The castle has been breached, does anyone know where it is?"

"The've broken the front doors. They're climbing the exterior walls. We're not holding them very well." Auror Milner said from the coin.

General Write came over the coins, "SAS Team 3 stay on the walls, Teams 1 and 2 head for the doors."

They heard a monster's roar out the doors and down the hall a ways. "Students, get into the office!" Professor Weasley looked around and couldn't find Lily or Johnny. She touched her wand to her throat, "I'm putting the castle in lock-down in 30 seconds, get to where you need to be now!" She had the castle make the infirmary doors become solid. She started counting.

**Geary**

Geary led Lt. Newbury up through the staircases. The Lt. kept getting distracted by the paintings and the statues that watched him pass by.

"How old are you, kid?"

Geary waited for Newbury to catch up. "I'm 15, sir."

"So you've been doing this magic stuff for a long time?"

"Actually, no. I grew up in Brighton as a normal kid. Then at 11 I got a letter inviting me here. So I understand the normal world, unlike most of the other people here."

"Understand the normal world? What do you mean?"

"It means that I can spell 'electricity' and know what it is." Lt. Newbury mouthed an "oh". "The magical world is really very limited. Here - up this ladder." They climbed out onto the turret and gaped at the view. The helicopters were as thick as mosquitos all firing constantly. The grounds were now solid brown with moving or not-moving monsters. The sound was deafening.

"An ant hill attacked by mosquitos." Lt. Newbury yelled. "This is great, but I wish it was a bit taller, I can't see around the sides of the castle. Got any magic that can help with that?" He pulled out his radio. "Gonzo on station, FAC." He was soon immersed in his task.

Geary thought for a moment and got a big grin. "I can fix that." He poked his wand in the air. "Accio broom!" Within 30 seconds his broom showed up under his waiting hand. He hopped on and slid over next to Newbury and tugged on his coat. "Here, get on!" Newbury was a little distracted so he didn't pay as much attention as he should have, and he got on. "Hold on!"

"AH!" Newbury said as they leaped into the air and shot straight up above the highest helicopters at about 3000 feet above ground level. "Woohoohoohoo! This is awesome! A motorcycle in the sky!" After a few seconds he got back down to the business of supervising the helicopters in their assigned ground sectors and altitudes, refueling and re-arming schedules.

**Johnny**

Lily ran out of the infirmary and down the hall, with Johnny sneaking out behind her. Lily rounded the second corner. Johnny heard a roar and sped up to catch up. He heard Professor Weasley's voice boom throughout the castle, "I'm putting the castle in lock-down in 30 seconds, get to where you need to be now!" Lily was standing in front of a monster that had a giant two-headed ax which was rather difficult for it to use in the small space of the hallway. It was not attacking, it almost seem afraid of her. She started saying something in that strange language she first used. The monster seemed to answer back. Johnny stayed back to not interfere. She continued to talk to it. She started to get upset with it, pointing at it, and yelling angrily. It seemed to shrink back and back away. She started walking toward it, still yelling at it, and it was definitely backing up. It backed into the larger cross-passage and it turned and ran and she ran after it. Johnny ran after her and caught up to her as she stopped at the top of a staircase heading down, the monster was not in sight.

"Lily, what was that?"

"Johnny! What are you doing here?"

"You talked to that monster and it ran away. Why?"

"A different faction in the monsters." Lily said.

"What? - Peace-loving?"

"No, traditionalists. They want to entice me to participate - be their leader - rather than enslave me. But it's all death and destruction either way. I told it to get back through the gate or die. I think it believed me. These military guys are amazingly effective, but ultimately futile."

"Futile? They look pretty good to me."

"The monsters haven't brought in their second phase yet." She looked at him and thought for a few seconds. "Johnny, I need you to do something for me. So that I can save your life and this world. I can't do it without you." She looked sad, resigned, pleading.

Johnny looked scared. "What?"

"I need to know that you are safe in order to stop these monsters. I can't do it if you get hurt. I will fail and the world will fall to the monsters. You must – for my sake, for the world, for your family, for all your friends – you must go back to the infirmary now. Then I can stop the monsters. Please? You must help me do this and that means going to the infirmary."

He looked sick. He looked in her eyes and saw sadness, great concern, pleading. He swallowed hard. "Ok. Will I see you again?"

"I hope so. I want to, but I'm not sure."

"Ok." He embraced her, and she returned it tightly. "Come back please?"

"I will try."

She turned and walked down the stairs, then started running. He stood and watched until she turned the corner at the bottom. He turned and headed toward the infirmary. He made it halfway back to the infirmary before he broke down and collapsed against the wall.

**Lt Newbury**

**"**Jammer, you are released for refuel and rearm, climb to two-eight hundred and exit to the south until clear the area. Jumpy, climb to one-seven on radial 270 from the castle at 3 miles and take over patrolling the forest. Minimum Safe Altitude is 600."

"Roger, Jumpy up to one-seven on the 270 at 3, MSA is 600."

"Gonzo, this is Fly-Girl, my guns are overheating again. They're so warped I can't hit anything."

"Roger, Fly-Girl, nobody ever expected this kind of duty-cycle. Climb to three-two and take a spin to cool them off. Studs, can you expand your area to include the East side?"

"Roger, Studs will expand into the East side."

"Gonzo look!" Geary was pointing at the front doors of Hogwarts. Someone was running out of the front doors with monsters following and the entire field of monsters was shifting toward them.

"Gypsy, we got a human running out the front doors in your sector, try not to hit them."

"Gypsy has them in sight. – Hey! That's that girl. Look at her take out those monsters!"

"Lily!" Geary saw her running over dead monsters like she was climbing over boulders, heading toward the gateway.

"Gonzo, this is Gypsy. The monsters are closing in on this girl but I can't do anything to help."

"Roger, Gypsy, just keep trying."

Geary was surprised. "Look, Gonzo! Lily is leading them into a circle. She's not trying to get away."

"What? She's crazy. Oh, they're closing in now."

"No, Gonzo get those helicopters out of there! An explosion, move them now!"

"All choppers, evacuate the area, straight out from the castle! Now!"

The pile of monsters that were climbing around and over each other to get to Lily disappeared in an explosion's shockwave that looked solid with the condensation behind it. It came racing at Geary and Gonzo, but school brooms can only go so fast. It hit them like a plank, flipping them over and dislodging Gonzo. He would have fallen except for the straps on his ballistic vest caught on Geary's belt. That gave him enough time to get a better grip and hold on. "Got to get a harness on this broom, " Geary said.

"Jellyroll!" Came through the voice-activated radio. Then a loud explosion followed by more secondary explosions.

"Who was that! Who bailed out!?" Gonzo was trying to keep upright.

"Gypsy is now in the infirmary with no injuries."

"What happened?"

"I got hit by a chunk of monster that took out my blades. Sorry Gonzo."

"Anyone else take any damage?" Gonzo looked worried.

Geary was still looking for Lily. "Look! She's alive! Yes! She's alive!"

"Bloody hell. And she's back heading for the gateway again." Gonzo breathed quietly.

"Look at all the monsters! They're all heading back toward the gateway too!" Geary was frantic.

"Ok everyone, back to your altitudes and areas. Concentrate on any monsters that aren't heading back to the gateway." Gonzo was back on task.

The noise of gattling guns started up again as the helicopters came back on station. Geary was devastated as he watched Lily run through the gateway. "She's through the gateway." Monsters kept following her back through the gateway. Geary could barely stay on the broom. Another explosion must have happened in the alternate universe because a shockwave came through the gateway and echoed off the castle. Then the gateway closed.

Gonzo touched the coin attached to his suit. "General Write, Lily just ran through the gateway and the gateway is now closed."

General Write responded immediately. "All units! Kill every monster you see. Don't let any escape!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**And The World Is Changed**

It took the Aurors two days to clean the bodies of the monsters off the grounds and in the castle. It took a whole day before the residue from the gateway wore off so the Aurors could begin the cleanup. The evacuated students were scheduled to start coming back to Hogwarts on Sunday via a special Hogwarts Express. The helicopter squadrons went home yesterday. The SAS Teams are scheduled to leave tomorrow. Professor Weasley was still having a series of meetings with General Write about the current and future results of this incident. But right now she was looking for Johnny. The map said he was on top of the Astronomy Tower. She found him there looking out over the grounds toward where the gateway had been. Gently, she said, "Johnny? How are you today?"

He just looked down, then back out to the grounds. "Ok, I guess. Better than yesterday."

"I think it's fair to guess that you will have worse days and better days ahead. Though on the whole they will get better."

He nodded. "I understand what you said yesterday, that she needed to do that. That she was the only one who could do that. But I think it is completely unfair that she is the one to fix that problem. She didn't cause it, but she has to fix it."

"It is the measure of her greatness."

"Her greatness? How so?"

"Most people think that greatness or success, all of life actually, is only about power; getting it, keeping it, and wielding it. But they don't understand the nature of power. They think they do, when they watch someone grab for power directly, through violence. But, as that old saying says, 'those who live by the sword, will die by the sword'. In other words, those who grab for power through violence will be the ultimate victim of that power. Grabbing for power through violence is a broken process where nothing ends well."

"I don't understand. If not power, then what?"

"Responsibility. Real power is derived from accepting responsibility. Because real power, not the kind stolen through violence, is loaned to you by others. And the only reason they loan it to you is because you have accepted responsibility for something. And, because it is only loaned, they can pull it back any time you over-step your responsibility."

"Hhmm. Can you give me an example?"

"If I accept responsibility for an issue, say hunger in a part of the world, then I will become knowledgable about that issue and people will listen to me. And in listening, they will loan me their power concerning that issue."

"So you are saying that Lily accepted responsibility for the monsters?"

"Yes, and that is a measure of her greatness. That she accepted that responsibility, that _weight_, and she made progress in dealing with it. Another way of saying that is she ran towards the problem and not away from it." She looked at Johnny, who was deep in thought staring out at the grounds. "Don't forget to have lunch Johnny."

"Mmm hhhmm." He didn't lose his distant stare and she walked away quietly, smiling.

**Professor Weasley**

Professor Weasley came into the staff room right on time for the next meeting with General Write and his team. It had been an unusual series of meetings, partly because it was wizards and muggles, but partly because Professor Weasley had invited anyone from the Aurors or Hogwarts staff who wanted to attend. The extra attendance and interest has been quite high. "Good Morning everyone. General."

"Good Morning, Professor. Have you come to any conclusions since yesterday?"

She took a seat at the main table with the General. "Yes, some. And more questions. I fully understand your assessment that the Ministry is weak; it always has been, given that strong and long-lived family structures reduce the need for the role of a centralized government. The old families keep the Ministry off-guard and keep the focus of wizarding society revolving around them. As was seen with the domination of the Ministry by the old families during the last wizarding war, not to mention the focus on the importance of 'pure-blood families'. My question is what you hope to accomplish by denigrating and further weakening the Ministry?"

The General paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "I will be honest, with you and everyone here. We have all seen, in both wizarding and muggle societies, the weakness humanity has for racism. To ostracize the unusual. We think that wizarding society should remain hidden from the muggle world. We have not, technically, reached the level of speciation yet between wizards and muggles, but for all intents and purposes we are already there. Wizarding capabilities are so different than muggles that we think fear and suspicion will become endemic. Therefore, wizarding society should remain separate _but viable_. It must not come to the edge of collapse again. We intend to help the wizarding world stay vibrant and growing."

"That is quite magnanimous of you General." Professor Weasley said with only a touch of irony.

"This is not entirely altruistic. It is the next best thing to creating a colony on Mars; we can help ensure some part of humanity might survive in case of a catastrophic event through either your capabilities or ours. To start, we are only asking to have a muggle representative on the Wizangamet. We need to know when and how to help. We need a better view into the health of the wizarding world."

"I'm afraid the metaphor does not work as well for wizards but 'lead balloon' does spring to mind." Professor Weasley had a wry smile.

"Yes, I understand. But what else do you suggest? We need to have a source of intelligence in the wizarding world."

"Why do you see wizarding society as so broken, General?"

"I wouldn't call it broken, I'd say weak. It is a very small community that is very isolated. Our anthropologists have done simulations and studies of hunter-gatherer societies to determine the minimum survivable population size of a community. This minimum size is required to maintain cohesiveness and not fall back in it's technological advancement; in other words, to not forget it's accumulated knowledge from one generation to the next, to not shrink into oblivion. That size, surprisingly enough, is on the order of 20,000 individuals. Wizarding society in Britain is not much larger than that and the population trends are not going in the right direction. Believe me when I say this, we want to you survive and grow. You could be the future of humanity, or you could be an evolutionary dead-end. Given your unique capabilities, we want to make sure you survive."

The audience was shocked to the core. Professor Weasley waited, letting the shock sink deeply in. "But General, we are not a hunter-gatherer society and we have books."

"Yes, that would lower that 20,000 number, but not by that much. There is the totality of what your people know, stored in books, and there is your current working set of knowledge that you use every day. That working set can shrink over time to the point where even books won't help because you wouldn't understand them any more."

The door opened and Captain Hathaway stuck his head in.

"Professor, are you willing to help us help wizarding society?" The General asked.

"To be equally honest, General, I have been stalling, holding out for a better offer. And I think maybe it's here." Professor Weasley looked at Captain Hathaway.

"Professor, General." Hathaway said tentatively, nodding to each.

The General looked curiously at the Professor, then turned to Hathaway. "Yes, Captain, come in."

He opened the door and was followed by Johnny, Geary, Jaminson, and Amanda. They approached the table. The Captain looked apologetic, but said "General, I have been approached by these students with a very unusual offer. I'll let them explain."

Johnny cleared his throat. "Professor, General. We have been talking about the events of the last few weeks. Particularly what we have seen from the SAS teams." He looked at the General. "We have seen glimpses of a muggle world that is far larger, far more interesting, and far more important than we have thought before. We have seen the commitment and capabilities of the SAS teams and we can't remain isolated and hiding in the wizarding world. General, we want to enlist in the SAS. We want to serve the wider world."

Now the shock was on the muggles as well. "I see." The General took a minute to gather his thoughts. "Well, Professor, I think you're right. Your better offer is here."

"General, I also have to agree." Auror Milner said. "I would like to enlist, as well."

Professor Weasley smiled.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**Epilogue**

Johnny and Amanda were just leaving their fifth-year potions class heading toward their extended muggle-studies class and dreaming of the beautiful spring weather outside. So much had changed in the last year and a half, but it still didn't seem fast enough for Johnny.

A klaxon went off and Johnny just about jumped out of his skin. "What!? They're back!? Where?"

Amanda grabbed his arm, "That sounds like the dungeon! Let's go!" They ran off toward the Main Staircases and the dungeons.

When they got there Professor Weasley was bending over a large object on the floor. "Professor, what happened?" Amanda asked.

"Hello Johnny, Amanda. It seems only this happened." Geary and Jamison ran up, trying to catch their breath.

"It's the head of a monster! Are they coming back?" Johnny looked very concerned.

"It doesn't look like it, given what the note says."

"A note was attached? Let's see." Amanda reached out and held it up for them all to read.

_Hi Mom (Professor Weasley), Johnny, Jamison, Amanda, and Geary. I want to thank you all so much for helping me, protecting me, feeding me, teaching me, being my friends, and giving me back my memories. You helped me understand that I can't run away from problems, I have to run toward them. And it worked. The little door-stop attached to this note is the head of the monster leader that was chasing me for so long. I and the people of this reality have rid ourselves of the monsters. Thanks to you. And, thanks to you, my family has found me! They were not able to find me because I had lost the bracelet so long ago. I hope to come for a visit soon. My family wants to meet you too._

_Love, Lily Weasley (and many other names from many other places...)_

**The End**


End file.
